Romancing the Enemy
by Initial A
Summary: {COMPLETE}InuYasha. Kagome. Two equally stubborn people who can't see that one loves the other, and vice versa. When Kagome teams up with Sango to get InuYasha to love her, and InuYasha does the same with Shippo and Miroku, what happens?
1. Scroll One: SIT!

**_Romancing the Enemy_**

**_By: MeldaVeanarSuure_**

**_Disclaimer: _**InuYasha, while I wish he, Miroku, Sessho-maru, and the adorable ikkle Shippo were mine, does not belong to me, the storyline and characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, the greatest manga-ka to ever walk the earth!! _throws confetti _

((in the words of my Spanish teacher, sucking up will get you everywhere... at least in her class))

**_Author's Notes:_** Okay, I decided that there needed to be a good InuYasha-Kagome story written by me... And write it I shall!! LOOK I LIVE!!! I'M BACK FROM THE DEAD!! XD Now... to the story...

* * *

"SIT!!!"

And with that, InuYasha was once again pummeled into the dirt by the cursed prayer beads around his neck. The others hardly noticed, as the punishment word was a day-to-day affair, and kept doing what they had been: Shippo laughing as he spun his top again, Kirara watching with interest, while Sango and Miroku were arguing about the monk's 'wandering hand' again.

And Kagome... she was busy grumbling to herself about arrogant half-demons, and splashed water from the river onto her face to cool herself from the heat, and her fiery temper.

"DAMN YOU, KAGOME!!! LET THIS SPELL OFF BEFORE I-"

"Before you _what_, InuYasha?" Kagome asked sweetly, preparing to say 'sit' again.

The silver-haired demon grumbled into the dirt, and fell quiet, wishing to whatever god was listening that he didn't need this gods-forsaken pain-in-the-ass woman to find the Shikon Jewel shards. And yet...

Miroku sighed, having caught the end of Kagome and InuYasha's latest argument. "You'd think they were an old married couple, the way they carry on about such nonsense." He commented.

Shippo laughed again as Kirara pounced on his top. "You could say the same thing about you and Sango, Miroku."

Sango blushed. "Don't be a brat, Shippo."

"I'm not!!"

InuYasha, finally freed from the sit-spell, walked over and picked up Miroku by the back of his purple overrobe. "I heard that, monk. Say it again and I'll personally make sure that you won't have a reason to ask women to bear your child."

Miroku was as calm as ever giving his answer. "Threaten all you like, InuYasha, you're only talk."

"Oh yeah?!"

Sango left the two to their one-sided bickering, and took Kagome by the elbow away. "Any more poison from either one of them to my ears, and I'll start sprouting it like Naraku." She told the schoolgirl as they walked into the woods.

Kagome smiled slightly. Sango took the hint. "So, what was the argument about this time? I didn't hear it all."

"Oh, I don't know... It started out fine, he asked how much of the jewel we had, and I answered. Then he started going off at me that it was _my_ fault that we didn't have that many shards, and... OH, I want to kill that flea-bitten rascal sometimes, he just makes me so MAD!!" Kagome yelled, stomping her feet.

Sango hid a smile. "I'm sorry to say it, but I think Shippo is right in some ways... You two sound like an old married couple."

Kagome turned the faintest shade of pink. "Don't say things like that..."

"Oh?"

The blush deepened. Sango smiled knowingly. "So, it's more than I thought. You love him a lot, don't you?"

Kagome covered her burning cheeks with her hands, wailing. "Not so _LOUD_, Sango!!"

"Tut, those two are arguing, his ears are focused on the pervert. So it's true?"

The younger girl was too ashamed that her secret had been found out, and only nodded, sinking to the ground. Sango sat down next to her.

**_Miroku, InuYasha, and Shippo_**

"Both of you, be quiet!!" Shippo yelled, throwing one of his firecrackers on the ground.

InuYasha quite rudely dropped Miroku on the ground. "Feh. Your life's been spared, monk..." He snapped, and jumped onto a tree branch.

Shippo dangled the string to his top in front of Kirara, while Sango's partner batted at it. "InuYasha's just mad because he can't find the right words to ask Kagome to be his mate." He said to Miroku.

InuYasha threw a walnut at the kitsune. "Shut up, brat." He sneered, his ears pinned to his head in anger.

((AN: It's now a walnut tree. If there were no walnut trees in feudal Japan... there are now. I said so.))

"It's true and you know it." Shippo said, pulling the string out of Kirara's reach.

Two more walnuts came his way. "I said, _shut up_, brat!!"

Miroku smiled. "Ah, InuYasha... If only you knew how much you were lying through those pointed fangs of yours."

One extremely large and fast moving walnut pelted Miroku in the head. "Aaaaargh, shut up the both of you, I do NOT love that woman!!"

Kirara mewed. Shippo laughed. "See, even Kirara knows it."

The silver haired half-demon jumped down from the branch, snarling. "I don't love Kagome, and I _certainly_ don't want her to be my mate!!!"

"Of course. You still love Kikyo, even though she's dead. And while you do still love the lady Kikyo, you will not die with her, so you can be with her forever." Miroku said, in the way that said, 'of course I believe you, why shouldn't I?'. "Tell me, InuYasha, why won't you die with Kikyo? It can't be about the Jewel, that's less important than true love."

InuYasha grumbled under his breath. "...Just butt out, it's none of your business..." He finally muttered.

Miroku and Shippo gave each other looks. "InuYasha loves Kagome, InuYasha loves Kagome!" Shippo taunted in a singsong voice.

InuYasha leapt at the kitsune, snarling, and picked him up by his tail, throwing him into a bush about twenty yards away. "SHUT UP!!!" He yelled, his cheeks redder than cherries.

Miroku stood, patting InuYasha's shoulder. "Faint heart never won fair lady... Though, if Kagome's fair-haired, then I'm no longer a monk... And you yourself are not much of faint heart, so perhaps the saying should be changed to 'brawny heart never won dark lady'. Though, that's hardly-"

"Get to the point, Miroku." InuYasha snapped, interrupting him before he got so wrapped up in himself and whatever he was saying that he forgot the point of speaking in the first place.

"Forgive me. What I mean is, if you dance around it, it'll never happen. You want Kagome. I know it, Shippo knows it, and gods all be damned you know it and don't deny it!"

InuYasha grumbled under his breath, amber-gold eyes fixed on the ground. Miroku smiled triumphantly, patting InuYasha's shoulder. "Don't worry, my friend, I can help you win the heart of fair Kagome."

Shippo hopped from one foot to another. "Oh! I'll help too!!"

InuYasha growled. "It's one thing to have the pervert helping out, but the runt? No way!"

"No fair, I wanna help!!"

"No!!"

"InuYasha, be reasonable, he could prove useful-"

"NO!!!! WHAT PART OF 'NO' DON'T YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND??"

"All of it! I wanna HELP!!"

InuYasha snarled, punching the ground and making Shippo fly upwards, and Miroku stumble slightly. "OKAY!! FINE!! Damnit, why the hell do I bother with you people, you'll just end up making it worse..."

"Will not!!"

Miroku sighed. "Now, come on, let's not start this again..."

**_Sango and Kagome_**

Kagome was drawing in the dirt with a stick. She blushed when she saw what she'd drawn and scribbled it out. Sango saw the picture before it was destroyed and smiled. "Ah-a... You've been with Miroku too long, Kagome-chan."

"Be quiet, Sango..."

The other girl laughed. "Kagome, I have a plan. It's almost foolproof, and it'll be a surefire way to get you and InuYasha together."

"Really??"

"Of course! Would I lie?"

"Well..."

"Okay, don't answer that, but I'm sure this'll be the greatest plan ever!! Now come here-"

Kagome leaned in as Sango began whispering the first steps of her plan into her ear.

* * *

((That's enough for now... I need to come up with things... and this'll be one of those once-or-twice a month updating deals... Please review and tell me what you think!!))


	2. Scroll Two: Flowers and Bobby Pins

**_Romancing the Enemy_**

_**By: MeldaVeanarSuure**_

**_Disclaimer_**: Blah blah, I don't own InuYasha, Rumiko Takahashi does...

**_Author's Notes_**: Chapter 2!! Yay!! Plans get put into motion!!

**_THANK YOUS/ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS_**: Thank you to the two people who reviewed already, especially the first, **tiarah**, who demanded more on the spot, which really motivated me!! Arigato to the twentieth power cubed!!

And also to **Crystal Renee**, who asks where this is going... Well, you answer is... I have no idea!!! I don't know where I'm going with this, and I likely won't until I'm finished! Hee!!

Also, MANY thanks to my cousin/bestest friend, **Willow182**, who helped me a LOT with the beginnings of The Plans, when I had no idea what I was going to do, and told me how to make things bold and italicized!!

* * *

Kagome climbed out of the well, grunting with the effort. Her backpack weighed twice as much as usual, as she'd also brought things that went with The Plan, as well as the usual supply of Ramon and snacks and whatnot.

Sango ran up to her. "I left the others in the village. They've seemed out of it for the past two days, anyway... What took you so long?"

Kagome dropped her backpack on the ground, and pulled out two high-fashion magazines. "I had to scrape money off of almost ALL of the people I know to buy all of these magazines... Are you sure we need them? I can't afford anything out of these..." She said, looking worried.

Sango sat down, propping herself against the well. She took out one of the magazines and flipped through them. She got a look of obvious distress on her face. "Oh my gosh, Kagome, do you people actually WEAR these clothes?!"

"I don't but some people do." She answered.

"This is just... Oh, I can't even think of anything to say about it!!"

Kagome blushed. "Well, I'm glad I wasted money on dumb things that won't help..."

Sango shook her head. "Oh, no, no, no they're fine, we'll manage to work things out... I'm just a bit shocked about the whole... what do you call it, _dasion faster_?"

Kagome laughed. "Fashion disaster." She corrected.

"Yes, that. Okay, come on, we'll go over to the Tree; the boys won't think to find us there. We'll go over things there and plan the next move." Sango said, and gathered up some of the magazines.

**_Miroku and InuYasha_**

Shippo balanced a stick on his nose, while balancing the rest of himself on one foot. "Hey!! Look what I can do!!" He called over to Miroku and InuYasha, who had their heads bent over a bit of parchment, Miroku scribbling on it with an ink quill.

Miroku glanced over and gave a half smile to the young demon. "You appear to be very talented, Shippo."

InuYasha shrugged. "Keh. So he can balance two things at once, a stick and his self, so what?"

A firecracker went off just two inches away from InuYasha's backside. He jumped in surprise and gave a look of death over to Shippo, who was innocently in the same position he'd been in fifteen seconds ago. "You'll get yours, raccoon boy..."

"I'M NOT A RACCOON!!!!! I'M A FOX!!!" Shippo yelled, dropping the stick and hopping from one foot to the other.

Miroku sighed. "Now you've gone and done it. Okay," He snapped his fingers at InuYasha's nose, "get back to the present, if you're going to get Kagome to fall in love with you, you need to pay attention."

InuYasha bent over the paper as Miroku began talking in a voice just above a murmur.

**_Five Minutes Later_**

"I HAVE TO DO _WHAT_??"

"Just go with it. She'll like it and you'll like the results of when she likes it."

"_I HAVE TO DO **WHAT**_?!?!?!?!?!"

"InuYasha, stop being a grouch and do it!"

"Oh shut up, raccoon."

"I'm NOT a raccoon!!"

"Boys, calm down. Yes, InuYasha, you have to do it."

"Feh..."

"If it's any help, I'll get it to her for you."

"Fine... Only if Shippo goes with what he said, though!"

**_Later, Sango and Kagome_**

"Okay, so I twist it around like this..." Sango looked at the hairstyling magazine, and twisted Kagome's hair in the same style. "And then around again like this..."

"OW! Sango don't pull so tight, I happen to like my hair on my head!"

"Sorry, I've never done this before." Sango apologized. She continued to fix Kagome's hair into a beautiful and ornate style.

Kagome winced slightly at the tight pull. "I'm sorry I yelled before, when you said it wouldn't work. The clothes styles, I mean."

"It's all right. I'm sorry I made you waste your money."

"Are you _sure_ that your kimono and obi will fit me?" Kagome asked.

Sango smiled. "You're about the same size as me. My extras should fit you. If not... well, we can always fit it so it's a slight bit baggier around your chest, and-"

"SANGO!!!" Kagome cried, her face a brilliant shade of red.

The other girl laughed, pinning a lock of hair down into one curly loop. "My apologies, I must talk to Miroku too much. We'll fix it somehow, I promise."

Kagome smiled to herself and let herself fall into a waking dream, the kind you only get when someone's brushing your hair and putting it into a hairstyle you _know_ is going to be pretty. But, suddenly... Birds flew from the trees, crying their alarm, branches snapped and leaves rustled, and a slowly growing louder voice reached their ears: "KAGOME!!!! KagomeKagomeKagomeKagooooooooooomeeeeee!!!!!!!!"

Shippo bounded out of the forest and jumped onto Kagome's lap, laughing the entire time. "Hiya, Kagome! Sango, whatcha doin' to Kagome's hair?" He asked.

"Hello, Shippo. Kagome and I are playing hairdresser." Sango replied.

"What's that? Is it a fun game? Can I play?!"

Kagome laughed. "If you'd like, I'll play with your hair, okay?"

Shippo nodded and turned himself around to sit properly on Kagome's lap. She undid the bow securing his ponytail, and let his orange hair fall to his shoulders. She took the comb next to her and began to get the knots out of Shippo's hair. "Owie, Kagome, you're pulling! It hurts!"

"It's supposed to hurt a little. It won't as soon as I get all the knots out." She replied.

"Okay..."

Shippo sat there for a while, and completely forgot why he'd come in the first place. Soon though, after a butterfly had caught his attention and went over to a flower to grab a snack, did the little kitsune remember why he was there in the first place. "Oh, Kagome, I was supposed to bring you something... Now where did I put them?" He asked himself, looking around for it, while Kagome stopped combing.

Shippo yelped suddenly, and started to panic when he realized... "NO!!"

'_InuYasha's going to KILL me!!! I can't believe I lost them!!!!'_ He thought. _'I must have dropped them when I was running to find Kagome!!'_

"Shippo, what's wrong?" Sango asked, fitting another piece of Kagome's hair into place.

"I... Inu... I mean... Well..." He shook his head, sighing. "InuYasha picked some flowers for you, Kagome, but he was too embarrassed to being them to you himself, so he told me to take them to you. I was so happy that I found you... that I dropped all of the flowers..."

"Oh, poor Shippo. It's okay, really it is." Kagome told him with a smile, while thinking, _'InuYASHA? Picking ME flowers?? We'd better check on him when we get back, I think some of Naraku's poisonous miasma got to him...'_

"No it isn't! InuYasha said he'd kill me if I messed this up! And I did, and how he's gonna-"

Sango frowned, sticking a bobby pin (which had taken her a full fifteen minutes to learn how to master) into Kagome's hair, and two more into her mouth. "That's just like him, the big bully. We'll handle everything, Shippo, don't you worry." She said around the pins.

"In the meantime, why'd he want you to give me flowers, anyway?" Kagome asked.

Shippo shook his head. _'Oh great!! One word outta me, and she'd know what was up!! Good thing Miroku told me what to say if she asked...'_ "I don't know. You'd have to ask him... Maybe he was trying to be nice?"

Sango laughed. "InuYasha being nice is like Miroku not paying any attention to women!!"

Kagome shrugged. "He's had his moments, though. I've seen him. He wasn't exactly _nice_, but he was kinder than normal, and he didn't yell or anything."

Shippo was sitting on Kagome's leg, still pouting. _'If Kagome doesn't fall for InuYasha now, it's probably going to be all my fault... and THEN he'll kill me...'_ He thought, a stray lock of orange hair falling into his eyes. "Kagome, could you put my hair back up, it's getting in my face. Please." He added, remembering what manners he'd learned.

Kagome smiled, and absently combed up his short hair, tying the green ribbon back in. "Thanks! That was fun, but I'd better get back..." Shippo said, sounding pretty down.

"Don't worry, Shippo, just tell InuYasha that you delivered the flowers, and we'll make something up when we get back, okay?" Sango asked.

"Okay."

"And sound happy, too. He'll see right through you if you sound as unhappy as you do now."

"Okay."

Shippo bounded off, tail bouncing a bit more with every step. Kagome sighed. Sango frowned slightly. "Don't worry about him. You know Shippo, he'll be bouncing around, happy as a fish in water, as soon as we get back."

**_Hours Later_**

"What is _taking_ those girls so long?" InuYasha muttered, crossing his arms in his haori, plopping himself down on Kaede's front steps.

He wanted to see how Kagome would react to him _personally_ about the flowers. Shippo had said she was very pleased with them, but then again, why should he trust what a kitsune said? Tricksters, the lot of them.

'_I can just see the smile on her face...'_ He thought, closing his golden-amber eyes. _'She'll be glowing... Even though she always glows. And maybe-'_ His thoughts wandered off to more... unrealistic thoughts.

'_At least for now.'_ InuYasha told himself firmly. _'They'll become... closer to reality, anyway, by the time this is all said and done.'_

Suddenly, his sensitive ears picked up footsteps, and he looked for the source. Emerging from the forest was Sango. He looked away. Not important. His frowned suddenly: Kagome had been with Sango. If Sango was here, then where... "Hey, Sango! Where the hell's Kagome? She go home again or what?" InuYasha called, looking impatiently grumpy.

Why did Sango have that look on her face? He shifted uncomfortably, ears twitching. "She's back in the forest. She said it was so peaceful there; she had to stay for a while longer."

"Feh..." He muttered, looking even more grumpy than normal.

Sango's smile widened. "If you're that concerned about her, go and find her yourself."

"Why would I do something like that?" InuYasha snapped. "She always tells me she's _perfectly_ capable on her own, and once I'd get there she'd just yell that damned word and my face'd be shoved into the dirt, _again_. I'd rather not go through that for the fifth time this week, if it's all the same to you." He thumbed his nose, sprawling out into a lazy stretch.

Sango just continued to smile, and even laughed to herself. InuYasha glared at her as she walked away. _'What the hell was that about?!'_

Though, he didn't much like Kagome being out in that forest by herself. Hell knew how many times he'd had to save her ass—_'Her very **nice** ass'_, he corrected himself—from certain doom-by-demon in that forest. Sighing, he stood up, and shook out the sleeves of his haori, walking into the forest.

Once he was out of sight of the village, InuYasha lifted his head up and sniffed for Kagome's scent. There — slightly to the north and east. Moving silently, he looked around all over. Suddenly, a strong wind picked up. A cry from ahead came to his ears; he recognized it as Kagome. Thinking that Kagura had reared her ugly head again, InuYasha whipped out the Tetsusaiga and dashed for where the cry had come from. "You stay the hell away from her, Kagura-" He yelled, then skidded to a stop, seeing no sign of Kagura. Or Kagome.

Instead, sitting on a felled tree, was a woman. Okay, she was a pretty woman, with a nice, but slightly confusing hairstyle, twisted and pinned complexly. She wore a light, rosy pink kimono with golden cranes embroidered on it; the inner one was a plain white, and a red obi kept it all tied together. InuYasha frowned, the outfit looked slightly familiar. The frown deepened when he realized that he was laughing at him, somewhat politely, keeping a sleeve-covered hand over her mouth. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." He sneered sheathing the Tetsusaiga again.

"I'm sorry, InuYasha, but it was just too funny. I'm sorry I yelled, if that's what set you off." The woman said, in Kagome's voice.

InuYasha frowned, walked towards the woman, and sniffed. _'She **smells** like Kagome... But why would she wear all this? Why not wear her own weird clothes?'_ "Kagome." He stated, folding his arms and hiding his hands in his haori again.

"Can't fool you with this getup, can I?" She asked, smiling.

InuYasha grumbled to himself a little, and sat down on he tree near her. "Keh..." It was the only thing he could think of to say. Then, "Why aren't you wearing your own weird clothes? And what's with your hair?"

"Sango and I were walking, and I... fell. My clothes got all muddy, and we had to wash them. Sango lent me one of her spare outfits. And Sango happened to look at one of the magazines I brought back, and wanted to try putting my hair up like it." Kagome explained.

InuYasha suddenly went into a coughing fit, to hide his red face under his hair, a _very_ naughty image of Kagome washing her clothes popping into his head. _'Oh great, I'm turning into Miroku!'_ The girl, surprised, smacked his back a few times to help him, and the hanyou stopped.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Kagome wondering what had brought InuYasha's coughing fit on, InuYasha trying to keep his mind in at a PG rating. "Oh, InuYasha, I wanted to thank you for the flowers. It was very... uncharacteristically sweet of you." Kagome said suddenly, looking at him.

Was it her imagination, or did InuYasha's cheeks turn pink? "Oh... right, that... It was nothing..."

He glanced over at her, and didn't see the flowers. He frowned, dark eyebrows coming together with an almost audible 'click'. _'SHIPPO!! That little wretch didn't get them to her! He must've lost them, and then told her, and now-'_ "Kagome, where _are_ those flowers?" He asked, struggling to keep his voice level.

"Oh... That bit of wind that came by... snatched 'em right up from my arms and blew them into the stratosphere. Really bites, you know? They were so pretty, too..." Kagome said, trying to keep an upset look on her face.

InuYasha 'humph'ed, his face returning to it's normal grumpy look. _'That kitsune did something... but I'll let him go... **for now.**'_

"So, you're going to pay me back for that, right?" He asked.

Kagome laughed again. "You expect to be paid back for every nice thing you do?"

"Isn't that how it goes? An eye for an eye."

"If that were true, the world would be blind."

"Not me, remember that time Sessho-maru pulled my father's gravesite out of my eye."

Kagome sighed exasperatedly. _'Still egoistical... And I can't believe he's not paying more attention to how good I look!! Well, if he wants payback...'_ "Whatever... But, you want payback? I have an idea for payback." She said, smiling slyly.

InuYasha immediately became wary. The last time she'd smiled like that, things hadn't turned out all rainbows and sunshine on his end. More like thunderclouds and tornados. "What is it...?"

"Come here."

'_This is it, she's going to kiss me!'_ He thought, scooting over to where she was sitting.

'_That's odd, why's he licking his lips like that?'_ Kagome thought. "Turn around." She ordered.

Now it was InuYasha's turn to be confused. _'Is this some sort of weird... future kiss or something?'_ He wondered, obeying.

"Now, put your head here on my lap, and just relax. I'm not going to hurt you."

'_What in seven hells is she planning to do?!'_ He thought, but cautiously obeyed, trying hard not to let it show how much he was liking this whole 'put-your-head-here-in-my-lap' business. He half-closed his eyes, relaxing, _slightly_. And suddenly, there was an odd tickling sensation at his ears- "KAGOME!! What is seven hells are you_ DOING_?!!"

He shot up, mashing his ears into his head to get the tickling sensation out of them. "You KNOW I hate my ears being messed with!"

Kagome propped her hands on her hips and gave him her very best girl-power glare. "You wanted _payback._ This is my version of payback. Come on, I _know_ you like it. What dog _doesn't_ love his ears being scratched?"

"Well, I'm sorry if I'm the first to inform you, but I'm a dog _demon_, and my four-legged cousins are a bit dumber than I am." He stated.

"I find it hard to believe that, especially when you're acting like this. Now sit!" Kagome yelled, pointing to her lap.

And down went the hanyou. Face first into Kagome's lap. Both parties involved turned an eye-smarting shade of red; Kagome more because of anger than embarrassment. Hey, she knew what she was doing. She forced him over on his back, and was a little surprised by his red face, but kept it to herself. InuYasha was busy glaring at her, immobile at the moment by the subduing spell. "I hope you're happy." He grumbled.

"Oh, but I am. I have you _right_ where I want you." Kagome said, smiling seductively. She reached down and began rubbing his ears again.

At first, all InuYasha could do was grumble and flinch and generally make it look like he was hating every moment of it. But, in a matter of minutes, his flinches subsided and he became calm, and a far-off, dreamlike look washed over his face. Kagome fought with all her being not to laugh as she saw one of his legs twitching out of the corner of her eye, and heard dog-like happy sounds from deep in his throat. "There now, isn't that better?" She asked, letting her nails work in around the base of his ears.

"Mmmmmm... Kagome..." InuYasha murmured, closing his eyes fully.

She wasn't sure why he sounded like that, but it made her feel funny inside. She gave his ears one last rub, then let her hands fall, her fingers running through his hair a little bit. _'He's... sleeping??'_ She realized, then laughed to herself. It was nice to know he felt comfortable enough to sleep around her, but it was downright hilarious that he _claimed_ to dislike her but he used her as a pillow at this very moment!

'_Well... I believe it would be proper to say I've won the first battle.'_ Kagome thought, sliding his head off of her lap. She stood up, shaking out the kimono, and walked away a little bit, smiling happily to herself. _'I will win you over, InuYasha... I will.'_ "I will..." She said softly.

"You will what?" InuYasha asked from his laying position on the tree.

Kagome ground her teeth together, telling herself to NEVER speak private thoughts aloud again. "I thought you were asleep." She muttered.

"I was, but you woke me up when you banged my head on this gods-forsaken tree. What are you going to do?"

"Nothing. It's really none of your business." _'For now.'_

He smirked. "Keh. Have it your way. We'd best get back to the village, the demons come out at night. In that pretty get-up, you'd certainly attract something." _'That'll get her... but she is very pretty... Especially in that outfit.'_ He thought.

'_N-nani?! Did I hear right?'_ Kagome smiled to herself. "You're being very odd today, InuYasha." _'Not that I'm complaining.'_ "Come on."

She reached out and took his hand, dragging him behind her back to the village.

* * *

((BLAH the ending was pretty bad, ne? It'll get better, I promise... I think I'm feeling the strain... Please review, it'll get better I promise, and reviews will help me get motivated to get these things out faster!!)) 


	3. Scroll Three: Tricks

**_Romancing the Enemy_**

**_Scroll Three: Tricks_**

**_By: MeldaVeanarSuure_**

**_Disclaimer:_** yawn Once again, no matter how hard I wish, InuYasha is not mine, he and the rest of the characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi-senpai. However, is someone can find a rent-a-character place and get me a special discount on Sesshou-maru, InuYasha, Shippo and Miroku, I'll be very happy with that!

I also don't own Skittles, which are mentioned later on in the chapter. v

**_Author's Notes:_** Once again, there are some thank yous to be handed out.

**inukag=love**, **CheerfulOblivious,** thanks a million for reassuring me that the end of the last chapter didn't suck, (as I thought it did).

Also to **TariLiiraIiraUngol**, who needs to get her butt in gear to put up new stuff, who also helped me come up with more ideas for The Plans, even though we only got the ending and not the middle, as we'd hoped to accomplish. ;; Too much bickering about that one part, ne?

* * *

InuYasha sighed, leaning against the wall of Kaede's small house, if it could be called that, readjusting the Tetsusaiga across his body. Everyone else was asleep, he glanced around at each of them: Shippo sprawled out next to Kagome, Kirara tucked neatly into a little ball next to him; Sango to InuYasha's left; Miroku nearby, his good hand laying dangerously close to Sango's behind, as usual; and Kagome... she was across from InuYasha, sleeping peacefully in her little sleeping cocoon or whatever she called it, her hair back to it's normal style, not the ridiculously odd one from yesterday.

'_And so begins the next day of out little game of cat and mouse... Or, maybe it should be dog and cat...'_ He thought as he blew one of his bangs out of his tired eyes: he hadn't slept more than an hour the night before.

A ray of sunlight fell into his eyes from the window. "Aaaaargh, damned sunlight..." He muttered, hulking over.

More sunlight poured into the room as the sun rose higher. Sango stirred slightly, turning closer towards Miroku. The monk's hand itched over towards Sango's bottom, carefully, as though he were still asleep; the devious look on his face gave him away. Shippo yawned and moved into a sitting position, rubbing his eyes. Kirara mewed and stretched. Shippo poked Kagome's shoulder. "Kagome, time to wa-wa-waaaaaaake up..." He yawned mid-word.

"Onegai... ten more minutes..." Kagome muttered sleepily, rolling over.

"No sleep-in for you, wake up!" Shippo demanded, shaking her.

No response. InuYasha gave a laugh that sounded like a bark. "Like this, runt."

Taking the Tetsusaiga, still in its sheath, he reached over the still burning embers from last night's fire and jabbed Kagome's side. "OW!!" The girl yelped, shooting up in her sleeping bag.

InuYasha laughed again. Kagome glared at him. "SIT! Sit, sit, SSSSIIIITTTTT!!!!!"

Sango, now sitting up, wondered how much more abuse Kaede's floor could stand; she thought she could see some cracks in the floor as it was. "Hey, Kagome, I- HENTAI!!!" Sango screeched, slapping Miroku across the face.

The monk smiled his satisfaction. "Mmmmmm... worth the pain... every time."

Sango muttered curses about overly friendly monks, scooting as far away from Miroku as the space left in the room would allow. Kagome shook her head, and got out of her sleeping bag; she rolled it up as Kirara walked over to her mistress. Stuffing it into her overly large backpack, Kagome froze suddenly. "I sense a jewel shard..." She said softly, looking around.

InuYasha's ears perked up. "Where is it then?"

"I... don't know... The energy pulse feels like it's coming from the west."

Golden-amber eyes flashed dangerously. "Oh, perfect. We go in search of a shard, and my _oh-so-lovable_ brother will come and kill us all."

Miroku, rubbing the red handprint on his face, sat up. "Why would your brother come and kill us?"

"Did the slayer smack you so hard that your brain got all jumbled? The Western Territory was my father's realm, and Sesshou-maru inherited it when he died. If we enter his territory without his permission, he'll kill us!" InuYasha growled, looking as if Miroku should have known the entire time.

"Like he wouldn't try to anyway, just to get his claws on the Tetsusaiga." Kagome remarked.

"Keh!" InuYasha 'keh'ed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Sango sighed, standing and slinging her boomerang over her shoulder. "Well, if we're going to get that shard, let's. We'll worry about Sesshou-maru when the time comes."

Kirara lightly bounded outside to transform, Shippo close on her tail. Kagome grunted with the effort of putting her backpack on, without breaking her bow and quiver of arrows on her back already, as Sango and Miroku, who's hand was once again straying close to Sango's lower body, walked outside. InuYasha noticed her struggling with the larger-than-usual backpack. "Kagome, I'll take it." He said, holding out his hand.

The raven-haired schoolgirl blinked. "What?"

"Give me your backpack, I'll carry it. You keep your archery stuff."

"O-Oh... Thanks, InuYasha."

She hand to use both hands to hand it over, and hers lightly brushed against InuYasha's hand as he took the bag. Kagome turned pink and pulled her hands back hurriedly, flashing a quick smile before she exited the hut even more swiftly. InuYasha looked a little surprised, at either Kagome's sudden shyness or the weight of the backpack, but gave a semi-smile and exited the hut, slinging the bag over a shoulder. Kagome was just climbing on Kirara's back, behind Sango. She glanced over at him and looked ahead again all in the same second, the blush returning. "Ready?" She asked them all.

"InuYasha, Shippo and I will walk, keep an eye out for things on the ground." Miroku said. "You two warn us if there's an attack from the air."

"We _know_ Miroku." Sango said, a little too patiently. "Kagome will search for the shard, and I'll keep an eye out for enemies."

Kirara jumped into the air, and the three males began their trek on foot.

**_An Hour Later_**

'This slow pace is killing me...' InuYasha thought, hands hidden in the sleeves of his haori, as he looked up at Kirara and the two unseen girls on her back. 'Well, better to go slowly and hope Sesshou-maru doesn't know we're going into Father's territory...' He corrected himself. 

He realized that Miroku was talking to him, and tuned in. "...perfect opportunity for it, don't you agree?"

"What?"

The monk sighed. "I have a new plan. It's a good day today, the perfect opportunity for it."

"What is it? It better not involve me touching Kagome's ass, I've seen the damage she does to you, it'd be worse if I tried it, since she'd actually try to _hurt_ me." InuYasha remarked dryly.

"You don't think she hurts me? Never mind, no, however much I know you want to feel her up—" At this, InuYasha turned about as red as his haori "–this does not involve Kagome's lovely as- erm, it doesn't involve her bottom." Miroku corrected himself, laughing nervously as InuYasha glared death threats at him.

"Keep your hands off of her, or you'll be wishing you _had_ hands." InuYasha growled lowly.

"Don't worry, now listen here..."

**_Above_**

"I think they're talking about us... And I don't see Shippo anywhere." Kagome commented, looking down.

"How do you know? I'm sure Shippo's off chasing a butterfly or something. And how's the shard hunt going?" Sango asked.

"We're going in the right direction; and I can tell by the way InuYasha keeps glancing up and Miroku looks like he's about to run for his life from InuYasha."

Sango smiled. "Looks like you've managed to snare something of InuYasha's feelings. First the backpack and now the glances... Ahh, puppy love..." She laughed as Kagome lightly smacked her back.

"Seriously, though, I have a new idea for a plan..."

**_An Hour Later_**

"I sense the shard! It's nearby!!" Kagome called down to the males, as Kirara swooped down lower.

"Great, and while you're at it, call a little louder, I'm not sure Sesshou-maru can hear you!" InuYasha snapped, then slightly regretted his words, seeing her frown.

"SIT!"

"OW! DAMNIT, WOMAN!!" InuYasha practically screamed.

Kagome chuckled. "_Now_ who's the loud one?"

Miroku sighed. His work was definitely cut out for him, getting these two together. Little did he know that Sango was thinking the exact same thing as he. "InuYasha, Kagome, please don't argue right now, we have a job to do." Miroku pleaded in his usual calm way.

Both of them sniffed haughtily, looking away from each other. _'Ho, boy... maybe I ought to just get them locked into a room together and leave them there for a few days... Either they'll love each other or kill one another after that.'_ Sango thought, sighing, then shook her head, thinking better of that.

"I sense it! It's... It's coming this way!!" Kagome yelled suddenly, reaching for her bow and an arrow.

Jakken emerged from the bushes, cackling like the evil little toad he was. ((AN: What exactly IS Jakken, anyway? A toad demon or something?)) "Ye're wantin' this, ain't that right?" He asked, holding up a shard on a string.

"Give that here, toad!" InuYasha demanded, hand straying close to his sword.

"Nay, don't you talk to me like that, not in the Great Lord Sesshou-maru's territory!" Jakken hissed, slamming his staff of the ground.

InuYasha growled, showing fang, both in his mouth and his Tetsusaiga. "Shut up! I don't care if this is my brother's territory, it's partially mine too! Now, fight or give up that shard, toad, or I'll hack you to bits!" He threatened, pointing the Tetsusaiga at Jakken's throat.

"Dear brother, you talk incredibly large for a pup your size." Sesshou-maru's calm, cold voice said from somewhere.

InuYasha snarled, looking around for his half brother. Sango slid off of Kirara, and shed her kimono, revealing her demon slayer outfit. She drew her sword, looking around warily. Shippo appeared out of nowhere, yelling, "Kagome, Kagome, look out behind you!!"

The bow and arrow that had been nocked fell from her hands in shock as a hand covered her mouth tightly to keep her from screaming. Kagome wriggled, but another hand slipped around her waist, making her immobile as well as silent. "Be still, wench." Sesshou-maru hissed in her ear, looking positively revolted at having to touch a mortal girl; but, it was important to the plan.

InuYasha whirled around, eyes widening when he saw Kagome captive to Sesshou-maru. "_Let her go!_" He demanded, looking murderous.

Shippo hid behind one of Kirara's legs. "I warned her..."

Miroku narrowed his eyes, deciding to try flattery. "Lord Sesshou-maru. We meant no harm by entering your territory—"

"Silence, monk." Miroku shut up, disliking those ice-cold eyes on him.

"Brother, you've become a nuisance. And I've just brought in the perfect toy for the pup and his whelp-friends to play with, and then be killed by."

At those words, a monstrous tiger demon emerged slowly from the cluster of trees, meter-long fangs dripping with saliva. Sesshou-maru smirked at the sudden look of panic on their faces. "Meet Dokuga, the most powerful tiger demon in the world. Enjoy your new toy, street-scums. Oh... but before I leave... I'll have the pleasure of taking the Jewel, and the life of this mortal wench..."

He ripped the Jewel off of Kagome's neck, chain and all. Kagome screamed as she felt the metal cut into the back of her neck briefly, but the noise was muffled by Sesshou-maru's hand, which clamped tighter around her mouth. InuYasha sheathed the Tetsusaiga, and lunged, claws outstretched. "Taste my _CLAWS OF BLOOD_!!"

He slashed at the older demon's hand, causing him to drop Kagome, and the Jewel, in surprise. The raven-haired girl gasped, clutching her neck, and felt her own blood. _'Oh no...'_ She thought, reaching out with her free hand and snatching up the Jewel before Sesshou-maru nabbed it again.

Sesshou-maru snarled, and vanished into the woods. Jakken was about to follow him, but Dokuga snared a bit of his clothing with a claw. He squawked, flailing. While he did, the Jewel shard fell from his hands. "Let go of me, you strip'ed-beast!! Master!! Master please help me!!" It appeared that he didn't notice the shard, or care, and it also seemed that Sesshou-maru didn't care much about his servant.

Kagome, wincing, groped forward until her fingers wrapped around the jewel shard. _'Got it... now we just need to take care of the demon...'_ She thought painfully, wishing the biting pain on her neck would go away.

InuYasha knelt by her briefly, keeping his eyes on the demon, but he spoke only for her ears to hear. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine..." She winced slightly, feeling a bit dizzy. "Just... take care of that demon, don't worry about me."

'_Damnit, Kagome, I can't help **but** worry about you...'_ He thought, but nodded. "Don't move." InuYasha ordered her, drawing the Tetsusaiga again and rushing into battle.

Kirara and Sango had already gotten Dokuga weakened to a good point. ((AN: XD Making this a shorter-than-normal fight scene, I can't do those too well... PLUS I wanna get to the good, fluffy parts!!! Yee!)) InuYasha lunged, Tetsusaiga aimed for the kill, when Dokuga lifted a paw and knocked him away. He hissed, raising his paw to scratch at him. InuYasha rolled away, and hacked at the paw, leaving a deep wound. Dokuga howled in pain, a strange, half-yowl, half-roar.

Kirara, with Sango mounted on her back, yowled a challenge, teeth bared. While the tiger demon was distracted, InuYasha looked for the easiest place to strike. Mentally, he figured that anywhere might work, seeing the bloody gashes all over his body, but it would physically be easier to strike- "Prepare to die, beast!!" InuYasha yelled, jumping up and plunging the Tetsusaiga into its side.

He unstuck the sword from Dokuga's side, making a face at the bloody, gory mess all over its normally shiny surface, and turned around as the tiger demon fell into it's own puddle of blood.

Kagome, fitting the now-purified shard into the Jewel, smiled up at InuYasha. She got to her feet and ran over to him, throwing her arms around his neck. "You did it! And you saved me from Sesshou-maru!!"

'_What the-?! She's hugging me?! Wait, she's hugging me!!'_ InuYasha thought, fighting off a blush, and cautiously, slightly returned the gesture. "Keh... it was nothing..." (And even though he'd never admit it, he was mentally giving most of the credit to Sango and Kirara for weakening it so much.)

Kagome buried her face into his haori to hide her own red face. InuYasha saw red streaks on the back of her shirt, and remembered her neck wound. "Let me see where you're hurt." He muttered, moving her hair aside to look anyway, whether she wanted him to or not.

Amber-gold eyes widened, seeing three shallow, but profusely bleeding cuts on the back of her neck. _'Shit...'_ "Looks pretty bad, Kagome..." He told her in a low voice.

"Feels... pretty bad, too..." She replied, muffled due to her face being buried in his chest.

InuYasha thought a minute, going over the possibilities. _'Well, I could get Sango to go and fix her up real quick... or... I could have a little fun with this...'_ "Don't you dare say the word, Kagome," He started in a low, no-nonsense voice, "I'm only going to try to help you... And trust me, this will help."

Kagome was confused, but she didn't say anything. InuYasha swallowed hard, becoming nervous, and dimly wondered why Sango and Miroku, and Shippo especially, weren't doing anything about he and Kagome staying in this long embrace. (What he didn't know was that both of the humans were discussing something, their backs turned to them, and playing with Kirara was distracting Shippo)

Now, you must understand something. As you know, demon bodies heal themselves, as long as they're not killed. What you may _not_ know is that a bit of this healing ability is passed on to some body fluids, such as blood or saliva. And Kagome was going to find out about that just about now...

InuYasha leaned down and licked one of the cuts. He was a little surprised to feel Kagome freeze, then shudder, but then again, he'd expected a bit more of a violent reaction.

Like the mention of a certain 's' word.

When she didn't make any objection to the action, he proceeded to finish the job, enjoying the fact that her grip around his neck tightened, and the fact that her scent began to change to become spicier, yet sweeter at the same time. _'Never smelled this bef-'_ InuYasha stopped mid-thought as he finished licking the cuts clean, watching them become less visible, the healing working it's magic.

'_The hell?! S-she smells... like she's in heat!! But not as noticeable as demon females, more... subtle...'_

Kagome, on the other hand, was having her own mental conversation with herself, her face redder than a bag of Skittles. _'Wha- he just- Why'd he- WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!'_ She asked herself, trying not to breathe so hard, and then did the only thing she could do at that moment.

She fainted.

* * *

((**BIG, MAJOR IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE, PLEASE READ THIS!!!**

I know, I'm evil, leaving a cliffhanger like this. Trust me, you'll hate me even more in a minute, after you read all of this. (And trust me, I used to be much worse with cliffies.)

First off, _Dokuga_ means _poison fang_ in Japanese. Kinda fits, ne?

Second off, last chapter for a while... School's getting worse (as it's almost over) and I REALLY need to get my butt in gear with my novel I'm writing for English class (hey, it's getting me out of that exam; got me out of mid-terms too ). It's due next month!! So, while I'm busy writing that, gomen nasi, but _Romancing the Enemy_ will be put in hiatus.

BUT, I **will try** to find time to write this, and I may get the fourth chapter out sooner than you think. As soon as I finish writing up my novel (called _Bracelets_, for those who care to know) I will get right back to this, I PROMISE!!! And think, I'll have all that time to get more crazy plans together and make this even more fun!

Thanks so, SO much to everyone who reviewed and everyone who WILL review, it really cheers me up, especially going back and reading them all over again, it keeps me motivated, knowing you're all crazy to read more Until the next chapter, keep reviewing; and e-mails are nice too!

MeldaVeanarSuure V))


	4. Scroll Four: Requests

**_Romancing the Enemy_ _Scroll Four: Requests_**

_By: MeldaVeanarSuure_

**_Disclaimer:_** By all means, be my guest to try and persuade Takahashi-senpai to let me have rights to InuYasha, but I doubt you'll get very far.

**_Author's Notes:_** Wow, so many new reviews!! I feel so loved!! hugs self, giggling with glee More thanks yous to be handed out!!!!

**kaginu=love:** I've never read any fics with the healing in the saliva... TT Darn it, I thought I came up with that on my own!! And yes, I'd faint too if InuYasha licked me, I mean, come on, what girl in their right mind wouldn't? swoon But, he IS part dog...

**Ami Kuroneko**: I hope I spelled that right... Yeah, you're an enthusiastic person aren't you? Three reviews, phwow... Yup, I already e-mailed you and explained things, but thanks again anyway! v

**Captured Moon:** Oh, don't you worry, Sango and Miroku will get a little bit of their own sauce served right back at 'em soon enough... And I know Sesshou-maru doesn't have any interest in the Jewel, but remember that Jakken is stupid and likes to try to please his master. Oh, wait, you're talking about the Jewel being stolen... Well... ahh... Plot device!! And it's fanfiction, you see weird things happen that don't belong there all the time. (sorry for the lame excuse, but it's true...)

**InuYasha'sGuurl:** Arigatou!! And about my novel... well, I'm aware that some plagiarism is running about, (and I dearly do not want my idea stolen, took me forever to mold it into something I could work with) so I'll e-mail you the basic summary, okie?

**Everyone else (who I can't mention because it's taking up too much paper!!):** Thank you sooooo much for reviewing!!! This is making me so happy!!!! Now, on with the story!!

* * *

Kagome woke up, lying on her stomach, to a cool, wet cloth dabbing at her back. She jumped slightly in shock when she realized she was lying on the ground, shirtless and braless, and someone was patting hr back with a wet cloth. "Calm down, Kagome, it's just me." Sango's voice said from somewhere above and behind.

The younger girl sighed, dropping her forehead onto the ground. "Sango, what are you doing?"

"Your back was a bloody mess. I had to wash your shirt and breastband, and I'm cleaning up the blood-streaks." Sango explained, then continued. "Your lucky that wound healed up so fast, else you could have bled to death, judging by how you fainted from blood loss as it was. Speaking of which, how _did_ it heal that quickly?"

Kagome blushed furiously as she remembered the events passed. Even her ears and neck turned red, which gave Sango an idea of what had gone on, but she waited for Kagome to tell her anyway. "Hbletmnk..." Kagome mumbled.

"Pardon?"

"He... mlphblk..."

"I still can't hear you."

"He..." Kagome took a breath, as Sango waited, bordering on the line of patiently and impatiently. "He licked my cuts... and they're better now..."

The exterminator gave an 'ah' of realization. "If course, his body's ability to heal itself is passed to his saliva... I've heard of such things, but this is the first time I've ever encountered it."

Kagome, if at all possible, blushed even more. "I don't... know why he did it."

"Perhaps he doesn't want to loose his shard-detector." At Kagome's low growl, which Sango thought was humorously close to InuYasha's own, she changed her answer. "Or, if you don't like that, maybe he cares about you and doesn't want you to bleed to death before he tells you he cares about you."

"Hell might freeze over." Kagome retorted, lifting herself a little off of the ground, and looking for her bra.

Sango handed it to her, and turned to shake out her shirt. She decided not to say anything in return. '_For someone who wants this to work, she's being very negative. Maybe some of InuYasha's personality leaked in with the healing..._' She thought darkly, handing the short to Kagome. '_Well, better go along with it..._'

"I have another idea for our little plan." Sango said, changing the subject. "It has to do with the little misfortune of Sesshou-maru's attack on you."

"Oh?" The other girl asked, pulling her shirt on.

"I was thinking, you don't know how to fight very well, do you? Your arrows work only with things in front of you, and you run out sometimes."

"Sango, where are you going with this?"

"Ask InuYasha to teach you how to fight. Hand-to-hand combat, since I don't think you'd do well with a sword either."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." Kagome replied dryly. "Hand-to-hand? Why?"

"If you screw up on something, it'd give him an excuse to touch you." Sango said sensibly.

"What?!"

Sango laughed. "You heard me. He'll like it, you'll like it."

"Sango, I really don't think-"

"Nonsense, just give it a try, please?"

Kagome sighed. Sango could be like a dog with a rope toy sometimes.

**_InuYasha, Miroku, and Shippo_**

"It's not funny!!" InuYasha yelled.

Miroku wiped tears from his eyes with his cursed hand, and covered his mouth with the other, shoulder shaking rapidly from suppressed laughter. He really hadn't laughed so hard in a very long time. Shippo, sitting unnoticed on a tree limb above, wondered what was so funny. InuYasha snarled, whipping a stone at the monk's head. "SHUT UP!! IT'S NOT FUNNY!!!"

"M-M-My ap-apologies, InuYasha." Miroku said, recovering from his laughter. "But... she..." He couldn't control it any longer; he started laughing again.

InuYasha snarled, reaching for another stone, but suddenly the snarl turned into a wicked grin. "You and Sango looked pretty close a while back, Miroku."

The laughter stopped. "We weren't doing anything." Miroku said, somewhat defensively. "I was examining her to see if she had been injured while fighting Dokuga." He crossed his fingers behind his back to pardon his lie. '_As if I am going to tell him what we were truly talking about._'

"Liar." InuYasha spat. "I can smell it."

"Truly, I am not lying. Ask Shippo." The monk replied, indicating the young kitsune above.

"I don't smell anything bad. He's telling the truth, InuYasha." Shippo chirped.

The hanyou snorted, shoving his hands into his haori. "Bastards... all against me..." He muttered.

"InuYasha, if you would listen to me in your state of childish behavior, I have another idea."

"Oh, yeah? Well, maybe I've decided to give up on your stupid ideas, and work with my own. She seemed to like my own idea more, anyway." InuYasha retorted.

Miroku chose to ignore his comment. "As I was saying... You always have to save Kagome from whatever peril befalls her, am I not correct? Well, perhaps she'd like to give up on the 'damsel-in-distress' role once in a while."

InuYasha shifted slightly, not sure about where this was going. He _liked_ saving Kagome, no matter how much of an act he put up. "Sure..."

"Well, why not offer to teach her some form of combat? I'm sure she'd appreciate it, and it would also give you the excuse to get close to her, to touch her when she makes mistakes."

"You expect me to hit her?!"

"No, you bumbling idiot. You would fix her positions and stances. And do try to be calm about it, would you?"

InuYasha growled deeply in his throat, and jumped up to a high tree branch, planning to ignore everyone and everything, and think about it.

_**Later That Night**_

Kagome pulled her knees up to her chest, staring into the heart of their campfire. Sango was seated as far apart from Miroku as she could, while staying in close range to the warm fire; the monk's face had a slowly fading red, handprint-shaped mark on his cheek, the effect of an earlier groping. Shippo and Kirara were curled up together, fast asleep on Kagome's pillow. InuYasha was still up in his tree, still musing over Miroku's new plan.

Kagome looked up, seeing InuYasha's silhouette in the star-covered sky. "Sango, can you boost me up into the tree, please?"

The older girl arched an eyebrow, but nodded, and helped Kagome onto the lowest branch. "You can climb well?" Sango asked softly.

"I'm fairly decent. Haven't climbed a tree since I was ten, but..." Kagome gave a shaky smile. "I'll be fine."

She continued on up, swallowing hard as she got higher up. "Umm... InuYasha?" Kagome asked weakly, looking up. She was surprised that she was only about two or three meters from him already.

"Keh... what'd'ya want?" He asked, glancing down.

"I wanted to talk." She replied, continuing up. "Gimme a hand?"

Sighing, his mind clearly elsewhere, InuYasha thrust down a hand, and was met with her own firm grip. He pulled her up, ears twitching at her surprised shriek, and held her firmly, so she wouldn't fall. "Talk."

Kagome blushed when she felt him wrap his arms around her tightly. "I was wondering something, InuYasha..."

"Yeah?"

"I've... been getting into a lot of trouble lately, with fighting and things..."

"I've noticed." InuYasha replied dryly. "And you were wondering if I'd teach you how to fight?"

He smiled slightly at her sharp intake of breath. "Yes! That's exactly what I was thinking! Oh, InuYasha, would you? Onegai?" She pleaded, looking up at him pleadingly.

InuYasha had planned what to say, but he still readied himself for the 'sit' waiting to happen. "Hell, Kagome, if it means I don't have to waste five to ten minutes of every fight to save you, I'll teach you to be a world-class fighter."

He flinched, waiting for the cursed word. Instead, Kagome squealed happily, throwing her arms around his neck, and, after a moment's thought, kissed his cheek. "Thank you!!"

If lava could decide to take a human-like shape, InuYasha was it's first pick. His face, neck, even his shoulders, felt like fire; not to mention his ears were probably turning a dark pink. "W-W-W-What... WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!?!" He yelped, as Kagome giggled.

"I just kissed your cheek."

"I KNOW WHAT IT WAS, WHAT WAS IT FOR?!?!"

"That's how girls in my time like to say 'thank you' sometimes." Kagome explained. "I didn't think you'd mind so much."

'_Gods no, I don't mind, so why the hell am I making a big deal about it?! Kiss her back, numbskull!!!!'_ His mind was telling him, but his traitor mouth decided not to listen. "Well... just... don't..." _'Ack, bad!! No, idiot you **want** her to kiss you again, don't say it-'_ "Don't do it again, okay?" _'BAKA!!!!! YOU SAID IT!!!!'_

Kagome frowned slightly. _'I knew it... he doesn't like me that way... Well, I got myself into the fighting thing, I won't quit just because he doesn't like me...'_

They sat in quiet for a while, InuYasha's red face slowly dying down. Very slowly. _'Damn I'm lucky she can't see well in the dark...'_ He thought, grateful for the cover of night.

He'd also been lucky that it was a slim crescent moon tonight, two nights before the new moon. _'This will go swell, once I'm human...'_ He thought sarcastically. _'I can only imagine what Miroku might come up with for me...'_

**_Down Below_**

"I wonder what that yelling was about earlier..." Sango remarked quietly, so InuYasha wouldn't hear them.

"Something not worth yelling about, I suppose. InuYasha _was_ the one yelling." Miroku replied, just as quiet.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Sango asked, "You think the combat plan will work?"

Miroku shrugged. "I see no reason why it should not." He ran a finger along one of the beads on his arm. "We agreed they seemed to have a certain liking towards the idea, did we not?"

"Yes..." Sango replied slowly. "Another thing I'm wondering is, what if they catch on? That we've joined forces?"

Late the night before, Sango had not been able to sleep. Walking around a clearing near their campsite, she had been muttering ideas to herself, when Miroku had snuck up on her and demanded to know what she was talking about. After explaining things, Miroku had started to laugh, telling Sango that he'd been doing the exact same thing with InuYasha. So, they'd agreed to work things out together, maybe drawing the two even closer somehow.

"I doubt InuYasha would. He can be very dense. Kagome on the other hand... I would worry about her, she might catch on quickly if we don't set things out in a way that neither of them would guess." He said.

Sango nodded. She knew that, she just needed someone else's reassurance. "But it will work?"

"Undoubtedly. Personal contact can be... quite stimulating to people in love." The monk replied comfortably.

The exterminator's eyes narrowed. "And you'd be the expert on that..." She replied dryly, while Miroku just chuckled.

**_Two in the Tree_**

Kagome was getting very uncomfortable. It wasn't that she'd always wanted to be held by InuYasha like this, just sitting there, not running or chasing; it was the fact that it was too damned quiet! She decided to try something; if InuYasha decided to be rude in return, she could always take a firm hold onto the tree branch, hope to Kami that she wouldn't let go, and 'sit' him into the dirt. "What're you thinking about?"

"Nothing." _'Liar. You're thinking about her, but you haven't got the balls to tell her, do you?'_ How he hated the annoying little voice in his head with a passion.

"You're awfully quiet. Even _I_ know that when you're quiet, you're thinking about something."

"I don't want to talk about it, all right?"

"Well, I do."

'Damn wench...' "Would it kill you to not be all, 'let's-get-in-touch-with-our-feelings' once in a while?" InuYasha snapped, then flinched, waiting for the 'sit' from hell to come. 

"Probably." For some reason, Kagome wasn't phased by his snapping-turtle mode. "So, since you know I'm not going to give up, will you tell me what you're thinking about?"

She twisted in his grasp to get a better look. "You really want to know?" InuYasha asked, as Kagome nodded vigorously. "Well, what I'm thinking about is this: Why doesn't she shut up and let me sit here in peace?"

_That_ got her. She gripped the tree branch firmly, glaring at him. She took a deep breath and-

"**_SIT!!!!_**"

Down the two went, only Kagome's trip down lasted much shorter than InuYasha's. As he went face-first into the ground, she clung to the branch like a monkey, smiling her triumph.

* * *

((Okay, so I was able to get this one done. I'm working on my novel, too, don't you worry!!! I've been aching to work on this, though, so there! I wrote six pages for you all!! Be satisfied, and wait at least two more weeks, and I'll be back on this, (since I'll have handed in my novel by then, COMPLETED!! YEE!). I am NOT going to start chapter 5 until then, so I can work on my novel in peace!

Peace out, and hope you can wait two to three weeks. Melda V


	5. Scroll Five: Teacher's Pet

**_Romancing the Enemy_**

_**Scroll Five: Teacher's Pet**_

**_By:_ _MeldaVeanarSuure_**

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own InuYasha!!! Don't sue me, for I am but a pooooooor freshman-soon-to-be-sophomore high school student!!!

**_Author's Notes:_** Thanks so, SO, SO much to everyone who reviewed!!! It really kept me up while I couldn't write this!!!

I've been given the choice to finish my novel for next year's midterms substitute, since I'll most likely have my current English teacher again for my sophomore year!! I can finish it then, leaving me free to write this!!!!! **_(dances)_**

**_Special Acknowledgement:_** Well, since this chapter focuses some on Kagome's hand-to-hand combat training, and there will be more mentions of it in future chapters, I had to learn a little. Thanks so much to **samurai-san**, who taught me the basics whether I wanted to actually learn them or not. (Even though I asked for you to _show_ me, while I took notes on everything...)

* * *

"No, no, NO, you're getting it wrong AGAIN, Kagome." InuYasha squatted down, and fixed the girl's feet.

"Sorry..." Kagome apologized.

"Don't apologize, we've only been at this a week." He replied, staring intently at her feet, as if daring them to move back.

InuYasha stood up straight, and gave her a hard look. "Now, hold that for a minute, and DON'T move your feet. I don't care how much they want to move. Are you the one in charge, or are they?"

Kagome fought the urge to stick her tongue out at him. '_Wow, he sounded... so mature there... Wish he'd act like it more often._' She thought. InuYasha looked at her again, and she answered him wearily, "I am."

"Good, now let's keep it that way."

InuYasha fixed his hands into his haori sleeves, and watched Kagome hold the front stance for a few moments. "Okay, stop."

Kagome sighed, standing normally. "Why do I have to do this again? I thought I asked you to teach me combat, not seven million different ways to stand."

"This is part of it. You want to learn, you go through the basics. Take it or leave it, we've been through this before." InuYasha told her.

Miroku and Sango watched them from a distance, and sent smirks to each other from time to time. Neither dared to go and watch, for fear of a repetition of the last time they'd tried to go and watch. Shippo was busily playing with his top, and Kirara was busy napping.

"I'll bet InuYasha's going to break first." Sango declared, keeping her voice down so the half-demon in question wouldn't hear.

"Mmmmmm..." Miroku agreed. "Most likely. Though, I must admit that while Kagome does possess a great amount of will-power, InuYasha is also a very stubborn being."

"They'll both end up driving each other completely nuts and hate each other more." Shippo put in. "I mean, they're both so stubborn, what would you expect?"

Sango sighed. "Well, if things go the way we hope they will, they won't hate each other. Sure, they may have driven each other nuts, but they do that anyway."

"Indeed." Miroku mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, and eyeing Sango's bottom out of almost-closed eyes.

**_Two Days Later_**

"INUYASHA!! Can we STOP with the standing poses?! I'm not going for a modeling career, I'm going for self-defense!!!"

"Give it a few more days, you're still getting some things wrong!"

"NO!"

"YES!"

"_I DON'T WANT TO STAND IN THESE STUPID POSITIONS ANYMORE_!!"

"_WHEN I WANT YOUR OPINION, I'LL ASK FOR IT_!"

"**_SIT_**!!!!!"

Miroku sighed as a cloud of dust rose from the area where InuYasha had fallen. "At last. My ears were starting to throb." He said in a low voice.

Sango sipped at her tea, her face emotionless. The two were sitting on Kaede's porch, watching InuYasha and Kagome have their daily argument over nonsense. Today's topic of 'discussion' was the fact that Kagome was sick of standing in whatever position InuYasha told her to stand in, and InuYasha was sick of her whining. "Oh, have they finished?" Sango asked, opening an eye and looking for the two.

"Yes."

"I couldn't hear over the ringing in my ears."

"I heard the 'sit' command, and that was the last of it... Maybe they're arguing more softly now, but my ears seem to be unable to detect that."

Shippo bounced out of the house. "They're finished, Kaede!" He called back.

"Thank ye, kitsune's child." Kaede replied, coming out of the hut slowly.

"InuYasha, ye need to learn not to test the patience of a young lady!" She called over to the bit of red and silver that poked out of a hole in the ground. She then looked around and saw Kagome standing huffily by the steps to the shrine. "Kagome, come here, child."

The schoolgirl stalked over, shooting evil glares at the hanyou embedded in the dirt, and stood in front of the others. "Yes, Kaede?"

"Ye have been working hard, haven't ye? And ye are upset with InuYasha because he hasn't shown ye something more advanced, which is what ye want. Is this old woman correct or not?" Kaede asked.

"You're right. Now, if you could explain that to InuYasha, I'd be happy." Kagome replied.

"Keh! You're not ready." InuYasha snarled, getting to his feet, the subduing spell gone at last.

"I am so! We've been doing this for over a week, I know how to stand!!" Kagome glared daggers at him.

InuYasha opened his mouth to reply, flames dancing in his eyes, but Kaede held up a hand for silence. "InuYasha, I don't see why ye can't go into something a little more advanced than lessons in standing. Try a few kicks, or I'll get a new rosary for ye, one that's a more painful than just a faceful of dirt."

The hanyou growled deep in his throat, and stalked off. '_Here I am, thinking that **I** am the one who's supposed to be the teacher, but nooooooo... I have a bunch of nitwits trying to help and telling em what to teach..._'

He slashed at a tree several times, smiling grimly at the deep scars he left in the bark as a thought hit him. '_Though...if we're working on kicks next..._'

InuYasha turned almost as red as his haori as the thought finished itself. '_Stupid monk... I've been with him too long..._'

**_A Few Hours Later_**

"Don't point your foot, you're gonna get your toes broken, stupid!" InuYasha yelled, grabbing Kagome's outstretched leg and forcing her foot into a non-pointed position.

Kagome blushed and started to lose her balance, but InuYasha let her leg go, and she stumbled back to stand straight. '_Good thing I'm not in my school uniform..._' She thought, grateful for her yoga pants and torso-fitting tank top. "Right... I'll remember next time..." She muttered.

((AN: FYI, yoga pants are very comfortable and stretchy. Perfect for things like dance, and yoga... and hand-to-hand combat training!))

"Okay, now try that again, and _don't_ point your foot, it's not a spear to be driven into some monster's intestines." InuYasha ordered, standing back.

Kagome almost turned green at that description. "Thanks for the mental image..."

"Well, if it keeps your foot straight." He shrugged.

Kagome tried the front kick again, imagining herself kicking InuYasha in the head. It must have worked somewhat, because InuYasha had a surprised look on his face. "T-That... that was g-good, Kagome..."

Kagome's own eyes widened. '_I-InuYasha?! Complementing me?!_' She thought, smiling warmly. "Thanks, InuYasha."

'_I need to be nicer... I love that smile of hers..._' InuYasha thought, 'keh'ing and turning away before she could see him blushing. "Don't get used to it." He retorted. "You've still got a while to go."

Sango, hidden in a clump of bushes nearby, smiled to herself, and retreated quietly back to the village. "They're getting along... sort of." She informed the others.

"Well, it's better than listening to them bicker." Miroku replied.

**_Four Weeks Later_**

Kagome sank into the warm, soothing waters of the hot springs, sighing with relief. Her muscles felt like tightly wound coils, but now they were finally able to relax. "Feel better?" Sango asked, sliding in nearby.

"Much, thanks." Kagome replied, smiling.

Sango winked. "InuYasha's working you hard, you need a bit of rest and relaxation. You two started arm blocks and punches?"

"Yeah. He made me block against any attacks he threw at me. I know he did as best he could to hold back his strength, but my muscles still hurt, and I know I'm going to have bruises."

"When do you go back to your time?" Sango wondered. "You won't want to wear your summer uniform if you have all the bruises you have..."

The younger girl grimaced. "Your right, my mom could get in trouble for assumed child abuse... Darn it!! Now, about when I go back to my time. I went back for my last week before break... three weeks ago." Kagome said, thinking over the dates for her summer vacation. "I have this week off still for my summer break, then I'll go back for a few days. Why?"

Sango shrugged. "Just wondering... for a little experiment..."

Kagome's face changed from neutral to sheer horror. "Oh no, please no, I've gone through these past weeks of torture and learned that my body doesn't like to move like this, please don't say I have to go hang-gliding with him or anything!!"

"What's... hand-gliding?" Sango asked.

"Well, you hold onto this huge kite, and run off of a cliff- No!! I won't do it!!"

"Oh... well, you're not going to go jumping off any large cliffs. Unless you want to test how much InuYasha loves you, if he'd dive off of a cliff after you, then I'm sure we could arrange it."

"NO!"

"All right then, you're safe. It doesn't involve anything except you staying in your own time for as long as possible, to see how long it is before InuYasha comes after you." Sango told her before sliding under the water and swimming away.

Kagome's eyebrows snapped together. "Hey!" She cried, and then dove after her.

Sango resurfaced, and was soon followed by Kagome. "What's that supposed to mean, see how long before he comes after me?" The younger girl demanded.

"Well, just a little test to see how long he can stand not having you around. I'll get Miroku to make a bet with InuYasha; you know him, he'll want to win, so he'll withstand the urge to retrieve you from your own time for as long as possible." Sango explained.

"Oh..." Kagome suddenly smiled. "I like that idea. Maybe I can finally get some work done, without the threat of him coming all of a sudden and dragging me off to the well."

Sango smiled. "He'll probably end up sitting in the God Tree for weeks, waiting for you to come back... Hey, that's it!" She slapped the water. "Scare him a little bit, make him think you're not going to come back!"

"Oh, Sango, I couldn't do that—"

"You can and you will. Stay in your time for as long as you think you can stand it. Get some homework done, hang out with the friends you have in your time." The older girl said. "Just think of it as sweet revenge for all the times you've wished you could do more than 'sit' him into the dirt. Every time you want to, just think 'I can't go back, I won't!'"

Kagome sighed slightly. "If I must..."

"Say it. You'll believe it for as long as you do. 'I'm not coming back.' You can stop saying it once you want to come back."

Kagome had to let out a chuckle. "Fine then. I'm not coming back!"

Little did the two girls know, InuYasha had been walking nearby, in patrol of demons that may have decided to go after the girls. He hadn't listened to them talking, until he'd come close enough to hear, "Fine then. I'm not coming back!"

The hanyou froze in his tracks, gold-amber eyes widen in shock, ears erect. He tried to listen for any other bits of conversation, but he only heard splashes: the girls had gone back to bathing. '_What?! Kagome... is going... back to her own time... and not coming back!?_' InuYasha thought in horror.

'_But... I thought... She... Kagome, how could you leave us... leave me?!!_' He scowled, and stalked off back to the camp. '_She's probably going back so she can be with that Hobo kid, or whatever the hell his name is. Damn him, stealing MY woman... Oh great, now I'm turning into Koga!!_'

Miroku looked at him oddly when InuYasha stalked into their camp and sat down roughly, glaring into the fire. "Why so dramatically troubled, InuYasha?"

"None of your business."

"I'm making it my business, since I'm detecting the source to be centered around Kagome. Now, tell me, what's troubling you?"

"Why do you care, anyway?"

"Because I may be able to help you fix whatever problem is making you grumpier than usual."

InuYasha snarled, digging his claws into the ground. "I... happened to overhear them talking... And Kagome said she wasn't going to come back. As in, she's going to her own time and not coming back here."

Miroku blinked. "I must have had a cricket buzz in my ear... I could have sworn you just said that Kagome will not be returning from her next trip home."

"Ain't any crickets in your ears, because you heard right..." InuYasha grumbled, looking down.

The young monk frowned thoughtfully. "I'm thinking you heard wrongly... Kagome wouldn't just leave us; she knows the danger that looms ahead, especially if Naraku gains possession of more shards than he already has. Did the two of you quarrel again, causing her to want to leave us?"

"No, we didn't fight today." InuYasha thought better of it, and amended, "Well, nothing really big, just a spat here and there..."

"I was just going to say, if you and Kagome went a day without fighting, then Shippo's my son..." Miroku muttered. "Listen, InuYasha, I doubt she meant it, especially when you didn't overhear the entire conversation."

An idea hit him, as InuYasha grumbled something to himself, probably something about how he didn't believe Miroku. '_Well, here's the perfect way to get him into the bet Sango and I discussed... I'm sure that she was the one who convinced Kagome into staying home for a while, so we could set this plan into motion; and here I thought she didn't like my idea..._'

Miroku decided to go with it. "InuYasha, I'll make a deal with you. If Kagome doesn't return for two weeks, you can go and talk to her, find out why she's not coming back, and maybe convince her _to_ come back. But you leave her alone until then, let her rest, or do whatever she's planning to do. How does that sound?"

InuYasha thought it over. '_Well... I **have** been working her hard, she could use a bit of a break... But if we're making a bet..._' "What's in it for me?" He asked suspiciously.

"Ahh ha, want the stakes raised a bit, do you?" Miroku smiled slightly, and rubbed his hands together mischievously. "Well then, how's this: if you do go after Kagome before the two weeks are up, you have to tell her how you feel and ask her to be your mate, as that is what this entire happy experiment is trying to accomplish. And, if you abstain from retrieving her..." He thought a minute, trying to come up with something InuYasha would want.

"Wait a minute, I'm coming up with what happens if I don't go after her." InuYasha said, suddenly giving a vicious grin. "If I don't go and get the wench, you have to stop caressin' women's butts and fess up to Sango about your real feelings for her."

Miroku paled slightly. "Now, InuYasha, you should get something else for your pains of not going down the well, not just—"

"That's what I want. You don't realize how loud a slap is to my ears, and I'd really appreciate it if the source was stopped. Got it?"

Miroku sighed. "And here I thought you actually had a heart, and were trying to bind mine and Lady Sango's hands of fate together..."

"Keh! What the hell gave you that idea!"

Miroku rolled his eyes, and opened his mouth to say something, but InuYasha suddenly held up his hand for silence. "They're coming back."

Kagome and Sango came back into the camp, and looked at the two males suspiciously. "Why're you two so quiet...?" Kagome asked, narrowing her eyes and propping her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, even _you're_ being too quiet, Miroku." Sango leaned in his face, poking a finger into his chest.

"My dear Sango, you are jumping to conclusions..." Miroku's hand drifted up to her butt. '_Well, if InuYasha wins the bet, I need to get these in beforehand..._' He thought, waiting for the slap.

Sango's face burned crimson, from a mixture of embarrassment, Miroku's hand where it was, and from the fact that it would make for a very, _very_ awkward moment if she just happened to fall over from even the slightest pressure he put on her. She raised her hand, and-

InuYasha's ears flattened against his head at the intense noise. Even Kagome had covered her ears as she sat down next to him.

* * *

((Okay, so we'll end it there. I've put in enough time changes already, which I'm sorry about, that's just how the story played itself out in my mind. Also, I'm sorry for any confusion any part of this chapter may have caused, especially the bet part, since I fought my way through a block to write this chapter... And have a major headache as a result.

I'm back and ready to rumble, so I hope you like this chapter, the next one should be out soon!!! Melda V)


	6. Scroll Six: School Days

**_Romancing the Enemy_**

_**Scroll Six: School Days**_

**_By: MeldaVeanarSuure_**

**_Disclaimer:_** InuYasha does not belong to me. Though, I AM wearing a T-shirt with his likeness on it at the moment!! (mine!! No stealing!!)

**_Author's Notes:_** I was so happy when I found that I had two new reviews for chapter five, and it not even up three hours!! I almost cried with happiness!! Thank you so much!!!!

**Strawberry Bunny:** Linkin Park and InuYasha at the same time?? What could be better??

**kaginu=love:** Remember, InuYasha can't pass up a challenge... you'll just have to wait for a chapter or two to find out how long he can last!!

Thanks also to **Alicia**, **InuYasha'sGurrl, Snoochie, **and** Ami Kuroneko**!!! And everyone who will review, but as I'm lazy, I probably won't look at this part of the chapter until I actually put it up.

Thanks, and keep the reviews coming, it makes me so happy!!

* * *

The next day, InuYasha was moping up in his favorite tree, just outside of Kaede's village. Arms and legs hanging off of the branch, staring at the clouds through tired and upset eyes, his ears swiveled back at the sound of the light footsteps he knew so well. "What'd'ya want, Kagome?" He asked in an almost bored voice.

"Can I come up, or d'you want to come down?" She asked, smiling at him, and wondering what had gotten him mad now.

InuYasha sighed, rolling off of the branch, and landing on all fours in front of her. "Like I asked before, what'd'ya want?"

"Come on, have a seat." Kagome offered, sitting on the grass and patting the spot next to her.

He 'keh'ed, and sat down, pretending he didn't notice her. Kagome frowned slightly, but rolled her eyes, looking away again. "InuYasha, I'm going to go home for a while. I'd like to start the end-of-vacation with an attendance record... So, you're just going to have to rest for a while, maybe practice your Backlash Wave, or something."

She waited for his usual 'Ain't-no-way-in-hell-you're-going-back-for-school' sort of reply, but it never came. Kagome looked at him again. "What? You're not going to give me a reply?"

InuYasha shrugged, supposedly for the second time. "I shrugged. What'd'ya want, a speech?"

"I was expecting something a little more... you. Are you all right?" She asked, concerned.

"Fine. Just fine. You wanna go back, then go. I ain't stopping you."

_That_ was unlike him. Kagome caught on in a flash. "You're acting weird. There's something wrong."

"There's nothing wrong. If you're going, then go."

"Tell me!"

"I'm fine! Now get!"

"InuYasha..."

"Kagome, if you're going, just go. Please."

Kagome was about to refuse, but he'd said please. She sighed, and stood to go. She'd walked not five steps when she turned around. "I'd like it if you'd tell me what's wrong." She said softly, then left, heading in the direction of the well.

InuYasha waited until she was out of earshot, then snarled, digging his claws into the ground. "It's all your fault anyway, Kagome... Wish I could tell you that, but then you'd catch on, or want to know why..." He muttered. "Just like always."

**_Kagome's Time_**

She pulled herself up out of the well, and exited the well house. Kagome found the ground very interesting as she made her way back to her house. '_I wish he'd tell me what's going on... I hate it when he's moody and won't tell me why... Whatever's bugging him must be depressing, if he's not even going to argue against my leaving, like usual._'

"Kagome! You're back!" Sota yelled, stopping his game of throw-a-ball-against-the-house.

"Yup, school's starting again." Kagome explained. "I wanted to start the term off good."

"How long y'staying this time?" Sota asked.

"Two weeks for now, unless InuYasha comes to get me. And if he doesn't, I'll probably stay a little longer." Kagome replied.

Her little brother eyed her suspiciously. "Did you two fight again?"

"Nope, surprisingly he wasn't objective to my leaving today." Before Sota could ask any more questions, Kagome skipped into the house.

"Mo-om, Grampa, I'm home!" She called.

"Hello, Kagome! Back for school?" Kagome's mother called from the kitchen.

"Yup! Where's Grampa?"

"He went to the market, said he was going to pick up some herbs to hang around the well house to keep feudal demons away."

Kagome sighed, rolling her eyes. "Right..."

**_The Next Week_**

"Higurashi, I'm so glad you've felt well enough to come to school." Hojo said, smiling at her as he, Kagome, and Kagome's friends left the school.

"Umm... Thanks, Hojo." Kagome replied, mentally curing her grandfather for all the dumb sick excuses he'd given out.

Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi all giggled at how adorably _cute_ Hojo and Kagome looked together. It was really too bad Kagome wouldn't give up on her violent jerk-for-a-boyfriend and go out with Hojo. Kagome glared knives at her so-called friends. "So, Higurashi, if you're feeling up to it, would you like to go to a movie on Saturday?" Hojo asked, oblivious to the giggle-glare war that was going on between the girls.

Kagome turned pink. '_I can't be going on dates! Not when I'm trying to get InuYasha to love me... But, I always stand Hojo up. Maybe one date wouldn't be that bad... and maybe I could tell Hojo I'm not interested. And it's not like InuYasha's ever going to find out, right?_' She thought, trying to ignore Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi's giggles. "Umm... sure, Hojo. We can walk there from class." Kagome agreed, smiling slightly, her heart sinking.

"Really? Great! I'll meet you out here after class on Saturday, then!" Hojo said, smiling from ear-to-ear, and got up onto his bike. "I'll see you on Saturday!"

Eri squealed as he rode away, grabbing Kagome's arm. "Kagome, he's so cute, you have _got_ to ditch your jerk-for-a-boyfriend and go out with Hojo!"

Kagome blushed furiously. "Eri, I'm _not_ interested in Hojo! I'm going to a movie with a boy who happens to be a friend, and then I'm going to tell him that I'm not interested in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship!"

Yuka's eyes widened. "Kagome! You're really going to do that?"

"Yes. I already like someone. And he's not Hojo."

Ayumi blinked several times. "You can't possibly mean that rude, obnoxious, violent, jerk-for-a-boyfriend do you??"

Kagome nodded, not even trying to correct Ayumi's description, because of course, she was right, InuYasha was all of those things, but... "My... boyfriend," Kagome blushed, praying that InuYasha never found out about her calling him that when it wasn't even close to being official, "He's got a sweet side. He doesn't like to show it; because he was... he wasn't treated very well when he was a kid. Because he was different."

The three other girls were quiet for once, very interested. It wasn't often that Kagome opened up about her boyfriend. Their silences made Kagome go on, for whatever reason. "I guess the only time he was ever happy when he was young when he was with his mother. But, she died a long time ago, and all the protection she gave him disappeared, and he was tormented and chased and almost killed so many times..."

Kagome forgot that she was talking to her friends from her own time. "And then I found him... Sure, he was a bastard at first, and yelled at me and threatened me... But we went though so much together, I know he's changed, at least a little. He may not like to admit it, but I know he really does care about me... and I love him."

Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi were silent for probably the longest time since they were able to talk. The four girls walked down the street in silence. Finally, it was Eri who spoke. "Kagome... We're sorry. We didn't know..."

"Well, now you do." Kagome replied shortly. "And next time you go around trying to insult any boyfriend I may have, try to get a little background information on him first."

All three girls looked a little guilty. Kagome saw the guilty looks, and sighed. "Okay, so I did complain a little about him at first, and you guys _were_ just trying to look out for me. I should thank you for keeping my best interests at heart. So, thanks." She said, as the others smiled.

"We'll see you at school tomorrow, Kagome." Yuka said. "And good luck with shaking off Hojo."

"See you, Kagome!"

"And next time you open up about your boyfriend, show us a picture!"

Kagome waved them off, feeling a little awkward. '_Some friends I've got. Good ones, but weird... And just think at how much of a fuss they'd create if I showed them a picture of InuYasha!_'

**_Saturday_**

Kagome waited for Hojo outside of the school. "Higurashi!"

Hojo came down the steps, waving at her. Kagome waved back, smiling. "Good afternoon, Higurashi. Are you ready to go?" He asked, indicating his bike.

"Oh, we're taking your bike?" Kagome asked, blushing slightly.

"Of course. I'm never on time for the bus, or for the train, so I ride my bike every day. You can sit on the seat, and just hold on to me." Hojo said, walking to get his bike, and wheeling it back.

Kagome turned the faintest color of pink, and hopped up onto the seat, as Hojo got ready to pedal. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hung on for her life as Hojo started off, heading towards the theatre. She wondered how InuYasha was able to balance himself on the back of her own bike; she also knew immediately that she preferred being carried around on InuYasha's back over being driven around on the back of a bike.

"Are you okay back there?" Hojo asked.

"Fine!" Kagome lied.

"You sure? You're hanging on a little tight."

"Sorry! I've just... never been on the passenger end of a bike! I'm always the driver." Kagome loosened her grip as she spoke.

Hojo smiled, "Don't worry, you're in safe hands."

**_Three Hours Later_**

Kagome and Hojo exited the theatre, laughing. "That was really fun, Higurashi. Thanks for coming with me!" Hojo said, smiling at her.

"That _was_ fun, thanks for taking me." Kagome agreed, smiling back. '_Though, I wish you hadn't tried to kiss me back during that one romantic part of the movie._'

He looked sidelong at her, considering something. "Would you like to go to another movie next weekend?" He asked.

"Well... I'm not going to be in town on Saturday..." Kagome said, drifting off.

"Oh... Sunday, then? Or, instead of a movie, I could take you to dinner."

Kagome bit her lip. '_Now or never..._' "Listen, Hojo." She started, trying to not go into the 'I'm-so-sorry-but-can-we-just-be-friends' pathetically sappy voice. "You're a really nice guy. I haven't had this much fun on a date in a long time, really. But... I already have someone I'm in love with."

Hojo had a slightly shocked look on his face. "W-Well! I... I had wondered if there was someone else... You were either sick, or couldn't go on our previously arranged dates..."

"I'm sorry, Hojo." Kagome apologized. "I should have told you sooner, instead of leading you on like this. I really do like you; you're a great friend. I just already love someone else."

The boy smiled. "I understand, Higurashi. It's a little shocking, but I do understand... But, do I know this person you like?" He asked.

Kagome shook her head. "No. He's... not from around here." '_Try by 500 years._'

Hojo chuckled. "Maybe you could introduce us someday. Come on, I'll give you a ride home."

Kagome got onto the back of his bike. '_I don't think you want to meet InuYasha, Hojo..._'

**_Feudal Times_**

InuYasha lounged in his favorite tree again, bored to death. And lonely. He missed Kagome. Sango and Miroku were off somewhere. Even Shippo was leaving him alone, off doing whatever kitsune children did.

'_I wish Kagome was back... I can't go get her, I've got to win that bet!! If I don't, I'll have to tell her... I'll tell her when I'm damn ready to, and I'm sure she'll accept!!'_ He thought, sighing and rolling onto his side.

'_Maybe I'll go pick a fight with Koga or something...'_ InuYasha thought, trying to ignore the lonely feelings inside of him.

* * *

((Okay, I'm just going to end it there... Short chapter, yes, but I wanted to get this posted. I'm uninspired for this right now, need to get my muse back... Maybe I'll get a new one for my birthday today! I'm finally 15!! WHOO!!

And sorry this was a bit of a boring chapter. But, Kagome set her friends straight, right? And poor InuYasha's lonely... how much longer can he last??? Melda V))


	7. Scroll Seven: Insanity is Catching

**_Romancing the Enemy _**

**_Scroll Seven: Insanity is Catching_**

_**By:** **MeldaVeanarSuure**_

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own InuYasha, but I now have two DVDs, six manga, and the artbook!!!! (_runs around, laughing maniacally_)

**_Author's Note:_** (_cries_) So many... reviews... I can't even thank everyone. Seven reviews in one day!!! (_weeps uncontrollably_) Fifty-one all together, there's more for these few chapters than for my most-reviewed story, which has 25 chapters and fifty-three reviews!!!

You guys are all the best reviewers ever; you've all made me so happy!!! Keep them coming, I'll really bawl my eyes out if I get more than twenty for this chapter (which I'm hoping I will, this chapter is going to be one of the best yet)

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!!!! I CAN'T THANK YOU ENOUGH, BUT I'M TRYING!!!!!! (_glomps everyone in sight_)

Oh, and about the message in this chapter? Really, if you think about it, monks and other religious people were really the only ones who knew how to write in the feudal times. Regular people weren't allowed to learn their letters, because their lords feared they'd be educated enough to revolt against them. So, Miroku, being the educated monk, was forced to write for Sango!

* * *

**_Feudal Times, a Week Later_**

InuYasha punched a tree, and kicked at another, snarling. '_ONE MORE DAY. I'M GOING TO GO INSANE!_' He thought, clawing at the splintered bark on the tree he'd kicked.

It'd been thirteen days since Kagome had left. One more, and InuYasha was freed from his and Miroku's bet, and he was free to go and retrieve her. He was starting to go mad. Nobody to pick on, (Shippo was getting better at comebacks, it wasn't worth it much anymore), and both Sango and Miroku seemed to be off in their own worlds, and spent most of their time doing something else and ignoring InuYasha.

So, he'd been bored. Really bored. Really, _really_ bored. Okay, so he'd gone and attempted to find Koga and pick a fight, just to get rid of some energy, but the wolf prince had refused, saying it wasn't worth it unless Kagome was there to see how powerful a true demon really was.

"Damnit, sun, just set already..." He muttered, glaring at the bright spot in the sky, which was nowhere near the horizon.

**_Kagome's Time_**

Kagome sighed, leaning on her windowsill. '_One more day... I can't wait to see InuYasha again._' She thought.

She really hadn't thought that staying in her own time for an extended period would be so hard. Sure, she'd gotten a lot done, she'd worked ahead so she wouldn't fall so behind, and she'd even talked future homework assignments out of some of her teachers, and gotten them done now.

So, Kagome was all set to go back to the past. But, she was going to wait to go back until the next night; she was going to give InuYasha the chance to come and get her. And-

'_A Jewel Shard?!_' She thought, her eyes widening.

She hurried downstairs and slipped on her outside shoes. She went outside, and hurried in the direction of the shard's energy: the well house. Kagome entered the building, warily went down the stairs, and looked into the well. A faint glow surrounded a piece of paper. Confused, Kagome jumped into the well, and grabbed the paper, shaking it out. A shard fell into her palm, shining faintly. Frowning, Kagome unfolded the paper, and recognized Miroku's writing. It was too dark to read it in the well house, so she climbed up out of the well, and sat on the front porch of the building. The note read,

_Kagome, I'm sorry to have to endanger the fate of this one shard, but Sango has informed me that it is vital to get this message to you. She wants you to come back tonight for a few minutes, to discuss something with you. She refuses to tell me what, though. So, I am to tell you to come though the well an hour after the sun has gone down, (bring all of the shards of the Jewel that you have), Sango will meet you there, and after you both have spoken about whatever she wishes, you're to leave immediately and follow through with what she says._

_Good luck with whatever she wishes you to do,_

_Miroku_

Kagome frowned deeper, rereading the note. '_Well... I guess I'd better do as she says... and stick this with the others._' She thought, holding up the shard to the fading light.

**_Two Hours Later, Feudal Times_**

Sango was seated at the edge of the well, when she heard Kagome climbing up the side of the well. "Sango, what'd you call me back here for?" She asked, pulling herself to sit on the edge.

"I want you to give me all of the shards." Sango told her simply.

"What?! Why? And where's InuYasha, I'd've thought he'd be glued to one of those trees around here, waiting for me to come back."

"Miroku sent InuYasha on a wild goose chase after a demon. Shippo transformed into something to keep dog-boy busy. I want you to give me the shards for another little plan." Sango said.

"Tell me what the plan is and I might consider it. I don't want another episode concerning you trying to trade something in for Kohaku's life." Kagome retorted.

Sango rolled her eyes, and leaned over, whispering something into Kagome's ear. Kagome's eyes widened, and she gasped, pulling away. "Sango!! That's so mean! How could you even _think_ of trying to pull that off?"

"I have thought about it, and we're doing it. Hand them over. Don't worry, you can come back in a few days." Sango said, holding out her hand.

Kagome bit her lip, then reached into her pocket, pulling out the little jar of shards. Then she unclasped the necklace of combined shards from around her neck, and dropped it into Sango's palm. The other girl snatched it away before Kagome could reconsider, and tucked it all into an inner pocket of her kimono. "Okay, now that that's settled, go back to your time before InuYasha comes back."

Kagome pouted a little, but slid back into the well. "Bye..."

Smiling slightly, Sango got up and left, heading back to their camp.

_**Later...**_

A little later, Sango was throwing another stick on the fire, when a very angry hanyou stomped into the camp, fire and lightning seeming to spring out of his eyes. "Sango!!!" He roared, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her roughly over to him.

"Yes, InuYasha?" She asked, just as calm as Miroku might be in that situation.

"_Where is Kagome?_" He hissed angrily, gold-amber eyes glittering dangerously.

"Kagome? InuYasha, you must be going mad, Kagome's in her own time." Sango replied, trying to flex her biceps to get InuYasha to let go.

InuYasha shook her roughly. "_No, she was here!!! Her scent and yours are fresh, over at the well!!_"

Sango grabbed the little finger that was helping keep her captive, and bend it back against its curve. InuYasha howled, and wrenched away. "WENCH!!! THAT _HURT_!!" He yelled.

"Good, I was hoping it would." Sango said coldly, just as Miroku came back, Shippo riding on his shoulder.

The kitsune cub laughed and pointed at InuYasha. "Hee hee! Sango, what'd you do to InuYasha?"

"Bent his finger out of shape, by the looks of it." Miroku commented.

"He wanted to know where Kagome was, as if I was hiding her in a tree hole, or something." Sango muttered, giving InuYasha an evil look.

"Isn't she coming back tomorrow?" Shippo asked, hopping down from Miroku's shoulder.

Sango sat down. "Actually, she isn't."

"WHAT?!" InuYasha, who'd just had his hurt finger in his mouth, trying to make the pain stop, shouted.

"Kagome's not coming back." Sango repeated.

Even Miroku was shocked. This was _not_ something they'd discussed. "But of course, she'll be back eventually?"

"Nope. Gone for good."

InuYasha had an odd look on his face. "Prove it." The demand came out as a hurt whisper.

Sango reached into the inside pocket of her kimono, pulled out the jar of shards and the necklace, and held them out for everyone to see. "She gave me these, and told me to tell you all good-bye." She said.

InuYasha took one look at the pieces of the Jewel, and left abruptly, disappearing into the forest. Shippo started crying, and ran up a tree, vanishing into the higher branches; a mushroom fell out of his shirt as he did so, and it cried as well, that being the only thing it _could_ do. Miroku just stared in shock. "Sango, Kagome didn't _really_ leave, did she?" He asked softly, while thinking, '_InuYasha thought that was what he'd heard... but I'll bet anything that's why Sango asked Kagome to come back, so she could pull this off well..._'

Sango looked around for InuYasha, and then said quietly, "No, she'll be back in a few days, but I wanted to give InuYasha a little scare, and see what he does."

"Next time, try to give me a little warning. You gave me a scare too." Miroku replied.

**_Meanwhile..._**

InuYasha sat in the God Tree, staring at the sky in stunned silence. Kagome couldn't be gone. Why didn't she want to come back? Was it something he'd done? If so, what? If not, why? '_I did overhear...Back in the hot springs... But, Miroku said... And the bet..._'

His thoughts were all confused. He couldn't even finish all of his thoughts, they kept tumbling one after the other. '_She... she has to come back... If she doesn't... I'll never be able to tell her..._'

**_Kagome's Time_**

Kagome sighed, lying on her bed in her pajamas, and petting Buyo. '_I hope InuYasha isn't that mad when Sango tells him that big lie... It's so cruel, though! I should have refused... Oh well, too late now..._'

She rolled onto her side, and flicked off the light. She crawled under the covers, and tried to sleep, but InuYasha kept popping into her head. First he was smiling. Then he was laughing. Kagome rolled over trying to think of something other than InuYasha. '_Maybe... Koga!_'

That worked for all of two seconds. First there was Koga, and then InuYasha came in, fought with Koga, and then InuYasha ended up as the winner. Which was okay, but then her imagination started to run away with her. Actually, the InuYasha in her head was. She envisioned him sweeping her off of her feet and carrying her off somewhere. Once at... wherever, he gently placed her on her feet, before giving her the over-confident smile that made her so mad at him, but made her heart melt at the same time. The daydream went further, with InuYasha leaning down and brushing his lips against hers in a soft kiss, then deepening the gentle kiss by placing his hand at the crook of her neck.

Kagome sat up in a hurry, before the fantasy went any further, flipping on the light at the same time. '_I can't think about him! I can't, I can't, I can't!!! But, damn it all, I can't sleep, I need to get him out of my head... I just need to make myself tired... I'll go practice outside, that's it. Lots of hard exercise, I'll be tired before I know it, and begging for sleep._' She thought, and hurried out of bed, dressing in practice clothes.

Kagome went downstairs quietly, and left the house, barefoot, going to an unused building of the shrine where she'd set up equipment to use her hand-to-hand combat against. She started off with a few of the punches she'd been taught, then worked her way up from there, using her arm strength to the fullest extent. InuYasha was in her mind, telling her what to do; but she had to get him out, she couldn't think about him, she had to stay here in the present for a while longer.

Next she stretched out her legs, then began stances. From that, she started on the main kicks, then moved up to the slightly more complicated ones she'd forced InuYasha to teach her. And he was still in her mind, yelling at her mistakes, telling her how to go into the next kick. Kagome grumbled under her breath; she was tired, but she couldn't rest until he was out of her head.

After that, she went all out, using combinations of kicks and arm blows. She was starting to get very tired, she hadn't pushed herself this hard before, but she had to keep going. InuYasha was still in her head, still telling her what to do, ever-present. "Get out..." She muttered, shaking sweat from her eyes. "I'll see you in a few days, just leave me alone..."

Kagome forced herself to go faster, push her muscles harder. '_Just a little more... I'll be too tired... to think of him in a few minutes more..._' She thought. '_Just a little more..._'

**_Morning, Feudal Times_**

His head hurt, his heart hurt, and most of all... his hands hurt.

InuYasha had stayed up for a long time the night before, thinking a lot of things over. Soon, he couldn't take it anymore, and needed to work out his frustrations on something. So, he'd spent at least four hours clawing and punching at a tree, until it finally fell over, and then he'd continued the assault on the harmless and defenseless thing until his knuckles and some of the back of his hands had bled.

There was nothing like pain to clear your head, make everything seem like you're looking right down to the bottom of a fresh mountain stream. He'd thought about it more, slept on the idea, then finally decided to go with it.

InuYasha was going to go back to Kagome's time, and tell her. Today was the official end of the bet, so it didn't matter. Technically, the bet had been over the night before, when Sango had revealed that Kagome had come back to say she was leaving, and InuYasha had won anyway, but today still marked the official end. So, he was going to go back to the camp, attempt to gloat about winning and force Miroku to reveal his true feelings to Sango.

After that, InuYasha was going to the well. He'd make himself jump down it, and then he'd go and find Kagome. Even if she was at that... school thing. InuYasha would then find her, and tell her everything. He didn't want to think about what would happen after that, good or bad.

**_Morning, Kagome's Time_**

When she opened her eyes, Kagome was greeted with the sight of her practice equipment, and a very sore body. She felt like she'd been run over by a herd of elephants, and maybe a few rhinoceroses as well. '_What... Why am I in here- Oh... right, I wanted to get InuYasha out of my head... I worked myself too hard, I must have passed out from exhaustion..._'

"Kagome!" Her mother's voice called.

"I-In... here..." Kagome called weakly, then sighed. It was useless, she was too tired. Unless...

She reached out with one leg, and knocked something over; she was too tired to look back and see what it was. It was heavy though: it made a very loud 'BANG' on the wooden floor.

Kagome's mother must have heard, because footsteps came hurrying over to the building, and the door was opened, revealing a very worried-looking mother. "Kagome! What are you doing in here? Why are you on the floor, are you all right?"

"A little tired." Kagome replied, trying to push herself up. "I... could really use a hot bath, my muscles really hurt..."

Her mother shook her head, and helped Kagome up. "Tell me everything, and I'll get you upstairs to the bath."

**_Later_**

Kagome sighed, feeling her muscles finally begin to loosen and relax. The bath felt so good. It had taken almost half an hour to wash in the shower, since she'd had to stop and sit on a stool every few minutes because she was so tired. '_Maybe I overworked myself..._' Kagome thought, wishing she was in a hot spring.

"Kagome, are you okay in there?" Her mother, knocking on the door, asked.

"I'm fine, Mom!"

"Okay..."

**_Feudal Times_**

Miroku was looking quite uncomfortable. "InuYasha..."

"You're going to do it."

"But-"

"Don't 'but' me. Go find her and tell her, before I find her, drag her back here, and make you tell her in front of me."

"It is a blessing, not making me tell her in front of you..." Miroku admitted.

InuYasha smirked triumphantly, crossing his arms inside of his haori sleeves. "Well then, if it's such a blessing, use it wisely, before I take it back."

Miroku made a rude gesture not commonly used by monks, and left, going to find Sango. InuYasha chuckled a little, unfazed by the gesture, and sat back, debating to himself. '_Maybe I should follow... just to see if he actually has the balls to do it..._'

He wouldn't need to if Shippo had been anywhere near there, he could have made the cub use his little spying acorns, but the little kitsune cub had gone skipping off to the village to help Kaede with her herbs.

But, then again, he wanted to go see Kagome. He sighed, hating it when he was at odds with himself. It was either go and entertain himself by watching Sango reject or accept Miroku, or go and be hit by Kagome's fury. Gulping, not wanting to get a sitting this early in the morning, InuYasha leapt into the trees, silently following Miroku.

Sango was practicing with her Hiraikotsu, using Kirara as a moving target. The cat-demon managed to move out of the way, just in time, every time the bone weapon came her way. Sango smiled at her partner, wiping her forehead after she caught her weapon, and walked over to the stream to splash her face and get a drink.

Miroku watched her from the trees. Unknown to him, InuYasha watched both of them from two trees back, high up in the branches. The monk took a deep breath and let it out slowly, walking over to the demon slayer. "Sango, would you honor me with a word?" He asked.

Sango started, then turned around, water dripping down her face. "Miroku?"

"Would you walk with me, please?" Miroku asked, offering his arm.

Sango looked curiously at him, then down at the arm. Hesitantly, she took it. "Miroku, what's all this about?" She asked, looking thoroughly confused as she thrust her weapon into the ground with ther free hand, and ordering Kirara to stay where she was so it wouldn't be taken.

The monk didn't say anything as they left, and this made Sango even more confused. They walked in silence for a while, the birds twittering around them. Finally, Sango couldn't take it anymore. "Okay, would you mind telling me what all of this is about?" She demanded.

"Sango, I... I feel I must admit something to you..." Miroku began, finding this a lot more difficult than he'd imagined it to be.

The younger girl looked up at him with questioning eyes, leading him to go on. He sighed, feeling heat rise into his cheeks. "I... Sango, please understand. I have... never meant to hurt you, by asking all of those women we have encountered in the past to bear my child. The truth is... I only did because I was... too cowardly. Too afraid of rejection... to ask you."

Sango's face was also turning a nice shade of red. "M-Miroku..."

"Sango. I... care for you. A great deal. After... Naraku is beaten... will you live with me, and bear my children?" He asked her softly, taking both of her hands in his.

InuYasha was watching from a few trees away. He saw and heard everything. '_So... he had it in him after all..._'

A tear fell down Sango's face. Miroku took it wrongly. "Sango, forgive me, I only wanted you to know my true feelings, I never meant to offend you-"

His excuse was cut off my Sango's mouth covering his. Miroku's eyes widened, then closed, as he kissed her back. Somehow, his hands found their way to the back of Sango's neck and around the small of her waist, and kept off of her butt. Sango's hands found their way up to his hair, and worked the tie out of his horsetail, letting the short locks fall around her hands.

Miroku dared to go a little further, and touched his tongue to her lips, pleading for entrance. Sango complied, and the kiss was deepened, their tongues exploring each other's mouths.

InuYasha was a little disgusted, but then again, he was imagining himself and Kagome following the same procedures and going even further than that. Satisfied that Miroku had done his half of the deal, the hanyou left, not really wanting to be around if the two decided to explore anywhere other than each other's mouths.

He bounded off through the trees, going to the well and to face the music. InuYasha _would_ find out why Kagome was refusing to return to him, or else something was going to be hurt.

* * *

((Whee, happy-ish ending to a not-so-happy chapter... Okay, there might be ONE more chapter after this, maybe two. Or, I might not end it just yet! I could throw in a big plot twist and make it longer!! I also apologize for anything confusing here, I was writing about four different paragraphs at once, and going back and reading it, it all made sense to me, but it might confuse others...

Also, this might be the last chapter for a few weeks (yes, again) I'll be away, working at camp for anywhere between two weeks to a month (depending on if I'm hired after training), so I decided to write a really good chapter to leave you all satisfied for a while and then commence beating me with sticks to finish chapter 8 in three weeks.

So, until I write again, keep reviewing, it keeps me motivated!!! I'd like twenty! (_big smile_) Melda V))


	8. Scroll Eight: If Patience Were a Subject...

**_Romancing the Enemy_**

_**Scroll 8: If Patience were a Subject in School, InuYasha would Fail**_

_**By:** **MeldaVeanarSuure**_

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own InuYasha; all characters are copyrighted to Rumiko Takahashi!

**_Author's Notes:_** Hey, hey, hey, look who's back and putting out the next chapter! Thanks everyone for all the splendid reviews and sorry about the nasty-ish AN I put out, some of the first batch of reviews had upset me and I just wanted to set the record straight.

* * *

InuYasha stopped in front of the well, staring into the endless depths. '_Kagome...I don't know why you're not coming back... but I'm going to find out. And you're coming back, sooner or later; I **will** get you back..._'

He rested a foot on the edge of the well. '_Okay, InuYasha, just jump in. Go in, and come out on the other side... You can do it. Go talk to Kagome._'

He swallowed, feeling as if he was going to jump off a cliff. Then his face hardened. '_Oh, come on! It's just Kagome, she'll hear you out and explain, just like always!!_' InuYasha told himself, and stepped forward, falling into the well.

InuYasha jumped out of the well, and sneezed, from all the dust in the well house. "Damnit, don't they ever clean in here?" He asked himself, covering his sensitive nose, and walking out into the daylight.

The shrine was oddly quiet. It wasn't like the place was always overly filled with people, but it usually wasn't as quiet as a graveyard, either. InuYasha remained alert, and made his way over to the house. He jumped up to the roof below Kagome's window, and tried to jerk it open, as usual. The window wouldn't budge. InuYasha tried again, and considered punching through the glass, but quickly vetoed himself, knowing that Kagome would 'sit' him to the other side of the world if he destroyed her window. '_She almost never locks her window... Maybe someone else is home, I'll try the door._'

He hopped down and tried the kitchen door. Locked. Growling curses to the locksmith who'd made the things on the doors, he went around the house to the main door. Locked. '_Damn! Where the hell is everyone?!_' InuYasha thought to himself, growling deep in his throat as he sat down roughly on the ground.

Then he remembered. '_Maybe Kagome's at that... school thing. Damn her, making me go and find her in broad daylight... I don't even have that hat thing she makes me wear in her time._'

InuYasha remembered something else. '_If she's at school, she's with that Hobo kid!!_' He thought with a snarl, temper rising above what it was now.

That settled it. InuYasha jumped into a tree, and made his way down the line of trees, bound for Kagome's school.

InuYasha surveyed the area from a tree, making sure no one was around to see him. The school was quiet too. The silver-haired hanyou jumped down and snuck into a clump of bushes under a window. He took a peek in the window. The classroom was empty. '_What?! No one here, either... Where is she then?!_' He thought, bewildered.

The silver-haired hanyou punched at the ground for a bit, letting out some frustration. "Damn—her—to—HELL!!" He yelled, making a rather noticeable indent in the ground where his fist landed.

**_Later_**

InuYasha lounged in the God Tree, waiting for Kagome to get back from... wherever she was. He stared at the leaves waving at him in the gentle breeze, sneezing occasionally from the amount of filth in the air. He had to wonder how Kagome managed to live with all this air pollution. '_One thing's for sure... she's going to live with me in my time when she agrees to be my mate... No way in hell am I living here, I'll die within a week!!_'

Turning red slightly, the hanyou corrected his thoughts. '_If she agrees... and if she accepts me as her lover..._'

He was still worried about that. She seemed to like him enough, but love him? They still fought, but not _as much_ as usual. Maybe it was the training, how they were spending so much time together.

InuYasha's blood suddenly ran cold. Kagome had advanced very quickly in her hand-to-hand skills. She'd mastered some of the more difficult techniques within a few weeks. If she didn't want to go back, he didn't want to think of the ass-kicking he'd get of he argued against her wishes. One time when they'd had an unplanned spar, she's actually won. ((AN: An unplanned spar would be that one or the other had surprised the other into a spar))

Okay, so she'd caught him off guard, (he'd been paying attention to the fact that she was in her school uniform, trying to kick him), but the fact remained that she still had won. Something his pride didn't want to happen again. Nor did his body.

**_Later that Night_**

The sun had set some time ago. It was getting very late. And InuYasha was grumpier than ever. "Where is she?!" He asked for the umpteenth time.

At that moment, InuYasha's ears pricked up at the sound of footsteps, and soft voices talking. He focused on the voices as they drew nearer. "...still not awake! I'm worried, she fell asleep hours ago!"

That sounded like Kagome's mother. "You said so yourself, she's probably still tired from that exhausting workout she gave herself the other night."

And that was Kagome's grandfather. InuYasha's face had taken on a mixed look of annoyance and dislike when he'd heard the old man's sentence. '_What's that girl gotten herself into without me to look after her?_'

He watched through the leaves. Kagome's mother was carrying the girl. Sota and his grandfather were walking just ahead of them, and unlocked the door, holding it open for Mrs. Higurashi. "Mom, Kagome's gonna be alright, right?" Sota asked.

"She's just tired, my boy, your sister will be up and walking by morning!" Grampa said cheerfully. "And if she isn't, legend says that these herbs I bought earlier will..."

The door closed. InuYasha took the opportunity to go to a tree closer to Kagome's room. He watched the window sharply, perching on a lower branch. If you didn't know his origins, you might think he was half hawk demon.

Inside, Kagome's mother was putting the girl to bed. She looked up, and smiled slightly, seeing InuYasha's white hair in the tree. She reached over and unlocked the window, giving a small wave to the hanyou, then left, shutting the lights off.

InuYasha blinked. Kagome's mother had unlocked Kagome's window. She had also waved to him. Did she trust him not to touch her daughter? '_Well knock me over with a feather..._' He thought, shaking his head.

He waited a while longer, until all the lights in the house were out, then hopped onto the roof just below Kagome's window. He slid open the window, and slipped inside, making as little noise as possible. InuYasha moved over to Kagome's bed, and knelt down, looking at Kagome's sleeping form with uncharacteristically soft eyes. '_Kagome..._'

Kagome stirred slightly, and InuYasha backed up as quickly as if he'd walked into a fire, looking scared. When the girl didn't make any further movements, or say anything, InuYasha relaxed. He started to move closer to her, when all of a sudden, Kagome mumbled something in her sleep, "Inu...Yasha..."

The hanyou blinked several times in surprise. Kagome spoke again. "Mmmmmm... InuYasha... please..."

Now he was _really_ confused. '_What's she dreaming about?! Why is she talking about me, especially like that?!_'

"InuYasha... no... no, please, I... I can't... see you..."

'_What?_'

"I can't... no, please... don't... kiss me..."

'_What in all the hells-_' InuYasha stopped in mid-thought as his mind registered what she'd said. '_She said 'kiss me'. In her dream, I'm kissing her... So, what's that supposed to mean? Maybe..._'

**_Kagome's Dream_**

_Kagome stood under the God Tree, enjoying the gentle breeze. Suddenly, InuYasha jumped down out of nowhere, and gave her his trademark grin, looking at her with soft, loving eyes. "Koishii..." He said softly, stepping closer and brushing hair out of her face tenderly._

"_InuYasha? Why are you calling me that?" She asked, blinking up at him._

"_Isn't it obvious?" He replied, still in that same soft way._

_Kagome gasped when he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers, gently at first, then pressed against her harder. She pushed him away, her face pale. "InuYasha, I can't see you right now, please, just-"_

_She gasped again when he paid her no attention, moving down to kiss her neck. "Inu... Yasha..."_

"_You like that, don't you, Kagome?" InuYasha murmured against her neck, then nipped her._

_Kagome choked back a scream and whimpered, falling into InuYasha's embrace. InuYasha chuckled as she moaned out his name. "Mmmmmm... InuYasha... please..."_

_He held her tightly, planting kisses all up and down her neck, down to her collarbone. Kagome tried to get him to let her go, but she'd lost the feeling in her legs. "Koishii..." InuYasha murmured again. "Koishii, why are you struggling? Why fight what is meant to be?"_

"_InuYasha... no... no, please, I... I can't... see you..." Kagome whispered, a tear falling down her face as he nipped her again, this time, a little harder than before._

"_Why not?"_

"_It's complicated..."_

_InuYasha's response was to kiss her again. Kagome wrenched away again, as confused as InuYasha was. Why did she refuse him? "I can't... no, please... don't... kiss me..." She breathed helplessly as InuYasha kissed her again._

_And suddenly, she was drifting in a gray mist. InuYasha was nowhere in sight, but why did she still feel the pressure of being kissed against her lips?_

Kagome stirred again, and slowly opened her eyes, only to see white bangs an inch or so away from her own. She tried to speak, only to find that someone else's covered her own mouth. She inhaled sharply and rolled away, panicked.

InuYasha's golden-amber eyes blinked bashfully at her, a blush stained his tanned face. Kagome's breath was shaky, she looked back at him with a frightened looking her eyes. "I-InuYasha?" She asked, her voice trembling.

"Kagome... I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't-" InuYasha was edging towards the window, waiting for the 'sit' from hell, to hell.

Kagome relaxed slightly, but her eyes never left his. "Were... you just... kissing me?" She asked softly.

* * *

((Okay, sorry it's so short, and sorry I didn't update for a while, but this turned out to be the hardest chapter to write!!!! I left you a little cliffhanger, and gave some fluffy InuYasha-Kagomeness. And still kept it at a PG-13 rating! Go me!! Well, I'd like to get this up before I go back to work next week then to band camp, so... yeah. I'll get chapter 9, hopefully the last chapter, up sometime before the end of September. That's at the latest. Keep reviewing, it'll get me to get the last chapter up sooner and resolve everything!!!!! Love y'all, thanks for being so patient!!! Melda V)


	9. Scroll Nine: A Love that was Meant to Be

**_Romancing the Enemy_**

_**Scroll 9: A Love that was Meant to Be**_

_**By: Initial A**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha! I have random merchandise and that's it!**_

**_Author's Notes:_** Well. Here it is. The last chapter, under my new penname/secret-identity-as-and-artist. It's been really fun. I'll miss the reviews, the constant rising in numbers on the favorites lists, and scheming for new ideas for the plot... Oh well, next story! Heh. (Also, I am very sorry about how the last chapter turned out. I've been reading Tolkien lately, so I got back into description... and there wasn't much dialogue, so I found it harder to get things going. I forgot how difficult those semi-silent chapters were to write, I haven't done one in a while)

I just wanted to let you all know that I've loved every review I've gotten. Every one of them, even the ones that made me cross at first, I got over them. I've never gotten so many positive reviews before, and you've all made me so happy!! So, here's the future for _Romancing the Enemy._

_**UPDATE: I will NOT be publishing a doujinshi of this story. I'm really sorry about it, but I've found I really don't have the amount of time needed to work on a full-scale comic. I will have artwork related to this story at Tekkoshocon this coming April, but I'm sorry, I've abandoned the Doujinshi Project.**_

Thank you again everyone, and I hope you read any new InuYasha fanfics I may throw out in the future!!!!!

InuYasha shifted uncomfortably, his ears dropping like a dog's when he knows he's going to be in trouble. He mumbled something incoherent, and the blush deepened. Kagome's face softened. "InuYasha... what is it?"

Another mumbled reply. Kagome began to smile. "Come on, InuYasha, you can tell me."

He glanced up quickly, then looked back down at the floor. "K-Kagome... Why... why'd you leave?" He asked.

The girl was about to say that she hadn't, when she remembered Sango's request. "Oh... that..."

"What d'you mean, 'Oh that'?!" InuYasha exclaimed, his head snapping up, his temper filling his eyes.

"I'm sorry, okay? I... wanted to get away for a while... And you didn't answer my question." Kagome hurriedly changed the subject.

InuYasha blushed again. "I... I don't remember the question." He answered lamely.

"Were you just kissing me?" Kagome demanded.

InuYasha looked down again. He was silent for a few minutes. Kagome scooted over towards him, and reached out, affectionately rubbing the tip of one of his ears to shake him out of his moodiness. The hanyou growled and swatted her hand away. "So, what's my answer?" The girl asked.

InuYasha reached up and pulled her down into his arms. Kagome 'yeep'ed in surprise, and turned a cute shade of pink. "I-InuYasha!!" She stuttered.

One clawed hand gently ran through her hair. "I... I was. You know it, I know it. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it."

Kagome readjusted herself, getting used to being in his arms again. She remembered that he hadn't held her since she'd asked him to teach her combat. Well, outside of her dreams, anyway. She thought out her reply carefully. "You don't have to be sorry." She said finally. "I was surprised. I... haven't been woken up by a kiss before, and it sort of startled me."

"Sort of?" InuYasha asked in a disbelieving tone.

Kagome shifted uncomfortably. InuYasha's arms instinctively wrapped around her tighter, and she stilled. "Okay, so I was really startled. You scared me. Why did you do that?"

"You... were talking in your sleep... You said something about me kissing you. I wondered why, but then something came over me, and..." InuYasha drifted off.

They sat in silence. Kagome buried her face into InuYasha's chest, ashamed almost to tears that he'd heard what she'd been dreaming about. '_Of course, if I tell him now, he'll probably feel that he **has** to accept me... just because he kissed me, and he heard what I said..._' She thought, then to her extreme mortification, started to sob.

InuYasha's eyes widened when he heard her start to cry, and felt warm wetness leak through his shirt. "Stop that!" He ordered, more roughly than he'd intended to.

Kagome didn't want to admit it, she probably never would, but she loved it when he attempted to boss her around. Which was why she always refused to obey, so he'd do it more. Though, sooner or later, her temper got the better of her. And we all know how that always turned out. "S-Stop wh-what?" She asked, starting to get the hiccups, which only added to her embarrassment.

"Stop crying! I mean it— What are you _doing_, girl?!" He exclaimed as she gripped him tightly, the damp area on his chest growing larger.

Kagome tried her best to stop. She succeeded a little, but tears still came, as did the hiccups. "I-I can't h-help it... You... you heard me..."

Suddenly, it all came spilling out. Her mind told her to stop, but her mouth couldn't. "You h-heard me, and ki-kissed me— and you only w-would accept me now because you'd feel g-guilty about it, and that's not wh-what I want!! I want y-you to love me because you love me, n-not because you feel you need to!!"

InuYasha stiffened. '_What the hell... did she just say?!_' "Kagome... What are you saying?"

Kagome was so frustrated with everything that had happened, she wretched his arms off of her, and beat her fists on his hard chest, tears running down her face. "You stupid— stupid—" She couldn't think of a fitting insult. "I love you, you idiotic hanyou!!!!"

She fell against him in exhaustion, still not over her bout of weariness from the other night, weeping still, but feeling as if a weight had been removed from her shoulders. "And I don't care if you love me in return..." She whispered, knowing he would hear. '_I don't care anymore..._' She told herself, then thought wryly, '_And I'd thought I'd die if he didn't love me in return..._'

The hanyou was silent. Kagome started to pull away, thinking that she'd hurt him, and that he wanted to leave. "I understand if you want to go..." She said quietly, starting to turn away. "I won't bother you anymore, coming down the we—"

She was shocked out of her sentence by InuYasha roughly grabbing her chin and tilting her face upwards, kissing her with a little more force than he'd intended. He realized that when she struggled a little, and let up a little. Kagome was glad she was sitting down, or else she'd certainly have collapsed from shock and the overwhelming passion in just that one kiss. Kagome pulled away briefly, looking at him with slightly unfocused eyes. "Inu... InuYasha. What—"

A clawed finger was pressed to her lips. "Shh. Kagome, I love you. Now, be a good girl, and let me finish what I started." He told her huskily, and captured her lips with his again.

Kagome had to make herself break it off. She needed to know something. A factor she, quite stupidly, hadn't considered before. InuYasha moved to kiss her again, but Kagome stopped him with a finger to his lips. "Kikyo?" She asked softly.

InuYasha smirked, taking her hand into his. "Kagome, would I really be sitting here, driven to near insanity from my need to feel you against me, and still love Kikyo?" He grew more serious, tilting her chin up so they looked each other eye-to-eye. "I do love you. I'm sorry I never told you before, but that's how life works. Now, can we please finish what we started?" He asked in a more tender way, lifting her hand and kissing her fingers, one at a time.

Kagome was only too happy to comply.

_**The Next Day, Feudal Era**_

"That's it?!" Sango exclaimed.

"Yup. I made him stop before it went too far." Kagome said, casually taking a drink from her water bottle. "I mean, really, I didn't want to go and screw him with things so... confusing."

Sango laughed, used to Kagome's slang. "Well, it sounded confusing. Generally these things are."

"Oh, shut up!" Kagome laughed. "You and Miroku got together so simply, it was like a fantasy romance story!"

Sango smiled shyly, blushing. "I owe it to InuYasha... even though he won't admit it. Miroku told me all about it."

Kagome smiled too. "He's sweet. Though he likes to pretend he doesn't give a damn, I know he's happy for the both of you."

Nearby, InuYasha, Miroku, and Shippo were discussing something of the same sort. And since the women weren't around Shippo wasn't sheltered from the adult-like suggestions that the two older men discussed. "So, nothin' on your end either, eh?" InuYasha asked, after swapping stories.

"I'm afraid not. Sango was quite insistent that we wait until we are wed. Considering I could have had the entire thing done in five minutes, we could have explored more thoroughly that night, but when I mentioned it to her, she said she wanted you and Lady Kagome here to witness it." Miroku sighed, then hastily corrected himself. "The wedding, I meant."

InuYasha snorted. "Keh. Like I wanted to watch you two go at each other like rabbits in heat."

He was back to his old self, after last night's confession, but Kagome would swear up and down that he'd changed profusely. And he had.

Sort of.

Miroku gave his easy-going smile. "And did Kagome agree to become your mate?" He asked.

InuYasha turned a faint shade of pink. Shippo smirked. "Turned ya down, eh?"

The hanyou whacked the kitsune on the head. "No! She hasn't turned me down..."

"Then she accepted." Miroku said, smiling triumphantly.

"Well... no." InuYasha was growing more flushed by the second.

Both Miroku and Shippo were confused. "Then, what did she say?"

InuYasha shifted uncomfortably. "She hasn't said anything... because I haven't asked her yet..."

Shippo started laughing. "I knew he didn't have the guts to do it!"

"Oh, shut up!!" InuYasha snapped. "I just... Oh, forget it, you're just gonna harass me about it anyway..."

Miroku was genuinely interested. His unusual friend wasn't one to beat around the bush about things, especially when he was pretty confident that he'd get his way. He'd also been sure that Kagome would accept InuYasha's offer quite eagerly. "Come on, InuYasha. Tell."

"What, don't I get a private life anymore?!"

"Nope. Friends do that to you." Shippo chirped.

InuYasha growled, eyes flashing in annoyance. "Damn bastards..."

He stared at the ground. Miroku and Shippo waited patiently. "Fine, I'll tell, but I don't want to hear any of your snide comments later!

"I didn't ask her because she didn't seem... ready. I'd scared her pretty badly, how I woke her up and all... Then with the crying and the sudden outburst on how she felt. When I tried to go a little further with her, she begged me not to. She said it didn't seem right, when we'd just admitted our feelings. I could tell she _wanted_ to, but the girl's common sense got the better of her.

"So, I respected her wish. I'll wait for her."

Miroku was staring at InuYasha. Shippo wiped away tears. "That was beautiful, InuYasha." The younger demon said.

InuYasha's jaw clenched. "I thought I said—"

"InuYasha, calm down." Miroku ordered, getting over his shock. "Though, I must say, I'm very proud of you. You made a mature decision, one that I'm sure Lady Kagome will appreciate, and pay back in full, with a little extra, I'm sure."

Instead of giving a smart reply, InuYasha flushed, ducking his head to hide his face with his hair. Miroku noted this with interest. '_He really does care for her... and he'll be true to his word, I'm sure._'

A little later, they returned to the women. InuYasha passed a hand through Kagome's hair as he passed her, earning a smile in return as he sat down at the roots of a tree. Miroku sat down next to Sango, for once not making a go at her butt, but put one of his own hands on top of hers. Shippo rolled his eyes in disgust. '_Lovers..._' He thought, fighting off the urge to throw up, as would any young child.

_**The Next Day**_

InuYasha and Kagome were sitting up in a tree. The hanyou was busy nuzzling Kagome's neck, earning giggles from the girl. In return, she tickled one of his ears, laughing outright when he growled throatily at her.

Suddenly, InuYasha stopped, and kissed her thoroughly on her lips. Kagome made a noise of surprise, reacting quickly. When they came up for air, InuYasha looked at her with such a degree of love in his eyes that Kagome shivered. "Kagome... I need to ask you something." He said softly, resting his forehead against hers.

"Yeah?"

"I know... you don't want to go any further than we've gone right now. But, someday, when you're ready..." InuYasha took a deep breath and let it out slowly, closing his eyes, then looking at her again. "Will you... accept me as your mate?"

Kagome blinked in surprise, confused by his terms. "W-What?"

InuYasha's ears dropped a little, his heart sinking. "It's nothing, really, forget I asked..." He muttered, looking away, therefore missing the look of realization that dawned on Kagome's face..

Her reply was to throw herself against him, squeezing the life out of him in a huge hug. "InuYasha! I can't believe you'd think I say no!!" She cried, hugging him, if at all possible, even tighter.

InuYasha tried to breathe. "K-Kag—"

"Oh, sorry." Kagome loosened her grip.

As soon as he could breathe, InuYasha gripped her shoulders, looking her straight in the eye. "You mean it? You'll have me?"

Kagome smiled. "I will, someday. It's too early for me to be thinking about taking a husband, or children; I'm too young."

"No pups?" InuYasha asked, looking sad.

After kissing him reassuringly on the cheek, Kagome teased, "Only think how weird it would be for me to walk into school one day, huge from what _you_ did to me."

InuYasha growled a bit from her tease. "Why can't you just quit that school thing of yours? Then we can have as many pups as we want, and you won't have to worry about it."

"We've been through this before. I can't." She replied. "But, be satisfied that we'll be together one day, and _then_ we'll have all the... pups... that we want." She fumbled a little, using the dog-term.

The hanyou smiled. "Can you give me an idea on when we can mate?"

"In a few years."

"Can you be more specific?"

"No. Deal with it, or I'll make you wait longer."

InuYasha grinned slyly as he made a noise that sounded like a growling purr, pulling her in closely. "I could take you right now, without a problem..."

Kagome gasped as his hand moved under her skirt. "InuYasha! Stop it! Really, I—" She gasped again as his hand started to wander...

"SIT!"

She managed to grab onto a branch as InuYasha plummeted to the ground, her face very red. Carefully she went to the trunk, and eased herself onto the next branch down, watching InuYasha with a look of death. "You pervert!!" She yelled. "That's it, where's that monk, I'm going to beat him senseless—"

"What'd Miroku do now, Kagome?" Sango called up, coming back to their campsite with the monk in question trailing behind.

"He's tainted my boyfriend, that's what! Where is he?!"

Miroku sighed, considering running for his life. Kagome couldn't 'sit' him, but he was fairly sure she could kill him with all the fighting arts she'd learned. Maybe he should try to reason with her... "Lady Kagome, I must assure you that I have not 'tainted' InuYasha in any way possible. I cannot be held responsible for his actions, because I did not tell him to do anything."

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him. "You're just saying that so I won't kill you." She snarled, her legs tensing for a jump.

'_Gods, she's turned into me..._' InuYasha thought in awe and slight fear as he watched his lover preparing to jump Miroku and strangle him to death. '_And damn, is that scary... No wonder she 'sit's me so much..._'

"Maybe I am..." Miroku said slowly, starting to sweat as he noticed the same things that InuYasha had. "And maybe I am merely suggesting you not to jump to any wrong conclusions..."

"Oh, believe me, the only thing I'm jumping to is the ground, and you'd do very well to run for your life, starting _now._" Kagome stated, and jumped, landing with almost catlike grace, a feat hammered into her skull by InuYasha several weeks before.

Miroku was off like a shot, but unfortunately for him, Kagome did not have the nuisance of robes around her legs. She lunged, and tackled him like the quarterback of a football team. Down both went.

Behind them, Sango was doubled over with laughter from the entire scene, and InuYasha was watching with a look of amusement on his face, making a mental note to never make his future mate mad.

Kagome got off of Miroku, glaring down at him as he flipped himself over to his back, looking at her with surprise. "Grovel, and I might spare your life." Kagome ordered.

"What? Absolutely ridiculous, Lady Kagome, I will do no such thing." Miroku retorted.

Kagome's foot lifted, and stepped on his robes, scant inches from where his legs met his waist. Miroku paled. "Beg. Don't think I won't." Kagome said icily.

Even InuYasha pitied Miroku now. '_Now I really have to be sure I don't get her that mad._'

Miroku fell flat on his back, and lifted his hands as if he worshiped Kagome. "My lady, I am terribly sorry for the wrongs I have done in perverting the mind of your beloved, InuYasha, into thinking like me and making a move on your lovely—" He stopped what he'd started to say when he heard InuYasha's threatening growl. "I mean, on your lower half."

Kagome smiled in her triumph, and removed her foot. "Good boy. It's nice to know _someone_ around here knows when to listen." She said, shooting a look over her shoulder to InuYasha.

Sango, still laughing a little, came over to help Miroku. "Oh, gods, you should have seen the look on your face!" She gasped, putting her head on his shoulder.

Miroku looked at her with a look that said he was less-than-happy. "I'm sure I'd rather not, thanks."

_**Later that Night**_

Kagome was sitting by the stream, bathing her feet in the cool waters. She heard footsteps behind her. "Kagome?"

"Hi, InuYasha."

"Listen, I'm sorry about earlier, you know I wouldn't take you if you didn't want to be taken." He said, looking at the ground.

Kagome smiled. "I know. I just wanted to hear you say it."

InuYasha came and sat next to her. "And I also wanted you to know, I've sworn to never make you mad again. After what you almost did to Miroku..."

The smile became an evil-like grin. "I owe it to your teaching, sensei. And I highly doubt you can refrain from making me mad, knowing your stubbornness, and my quick temper."

InuYasha shuddered. Kagome laughed, and slung an arm around his shoulders, leaning her head on his shoulder. "You know," She said suddenly, "Sango was the one who really pushed me towards telling you how much I love you."

"Really?" InuYasha was surprised, moving his arm to wrap around her waist. "Miroku and Shippo did the same with me!"

Kagome laughed again. "No way! So _that's_ why you've been acting weird, with the flowers and agreeing so easily to teach me?"

"I was acting weird?"

"Well, you weren't exactly being yourself." She explained.

InuYasha chuckled. "So, what prompted it? Sango getting you into this?"

Kagome smiled, looking up to the stars in the sky. "Well, it all started with that huge fight we had a few weeks ago..."

((The end!!! That's it!!! There ain't no more, cuz that's all she wrote!!! I really enjoyed writing this, and I hope everyone enjoys the _doujinshi_, because I hard at work on it!!!! See you again in another story!!!!

**_Initial A_**))


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